unesco's education for the 21st century

Roy Singh, RajaEducation for the twenty-first century: Asia-Pacific perspective.

Bangkok, UNESCO, 1991.93 p. (Asia and the Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation

for Development)

1. EDUCATIONAL FORECASTING — ASIA/PACIFIC.2. EDUCAT I O N A LD E V E L O P M E N T — A S I A / PACIFIC. 3. FUTUREE D U C ATION — A S I A / PACIFIC. 4. EDUCAT I O N A LI N N O VAT I O N S— ASIA/PACIFIC. I. UNESCO. Principal Regional Office for Asiaand thePacific. II.Title. III. Series.

379.5371.39

Asia and the Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation

for Development

EDUCATION

FOR THE T W E N T Y-F I R S T C E N T U RY:

ASIA-PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES

Raja Roy Singh

UNESCO PRINCIPAL REGIONAL OFFICE

FOR ASIAAND THE PACIFIC

BANGKOK, 1991

© UNESCO 1991

Published by theUNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

P.O. Box 967, Prakanong Post OfficeBangkok 10110, Thailand

Printed in Thailand

The designations employed and the presentation of material throughoutthe publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on thepart of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city orarea or of its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.

BKA/91/M/355-3000

CONTENTS

Part One: Perspectives of Change

Chapter One: Time: Change: Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Time Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Future as Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Change Process and Education . . . . . . . 5

Chapter Two: The Framework: Emerging

Growth Points: Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Educational Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Exploding Knowledge:

Science and Technology . . . . . . . . 10

The Development Quest. . . . . . . . . . . . 18

The Emerging Interdependent World . . 25

The Looming Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

—Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

—Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Crisis of Human Values . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

CONTENTS (cont'd)

Part Two: Prospects

Chapter Three: Envisioning Future Education . . . . . . . . . . 39

Integrative Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Unified Hew of Education . . . . . . . . . . 42

Educational Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Two Contrasting Models . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter Four: Educating System As Open System . . . . . . 50

Changing Education Systems . . . . . . . 50

Chapter Five: Knowledge-base of Education . . . . . . . . . . 55

Knowledge Environment . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Qualitative Transformation—

Key Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Broad-based Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

World Context in Education . . . . . . . . 60

Science and Technology Education . . 61

Economic, Social

and Development Domains . . . . . 64

Information Technologies

for Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

CONTENTS (cont'd)

Chapter Six: Knowing-learning-teaching:

the Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Learner-driven Learning . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Learning and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Creative Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

The Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Towards the Learning Society . . . . . . . 76

Chapter Seven: Values: the Centre That Holds . . . . . . . . . . 79

Chapter Eight: Implications for Planning

of Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84International Co-operative Action . . . . . . . . 89

Annex: List of Speakers and Their Papers

Given at the Regional Symposium

in Bangkok (16-18 August 1990) . . . . 91

Other references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Part One

PERSPECTIVES OF CHANGE

PREFACE

The future scenarios of the political, social, culturaland economic sectors will depend on the contributions of thestudents of our schools today. More than ever before, educa-tion must be visionary and future-oriented, in the face of stun-ning scientific and technological innovations and changes,unprecedented socio-economic challenges and opportunities,surprising socio-political reforms, and amazing cultural rea-wakening.

In rethinking education to cope with rapid changes atthe threshold of the twenty-first century, innovation, techno-logy, and research are indispensable tools of education.Failure to innovate by and large means repeating yesterday'seducational programmes and strategies tomorrow, which willonly further jeopardize education's reputation as contributorto development efforts. Educational innovations are imperati-ve, and would no doubt be effective if they are research-basedand imbued with technology of education (i.e. systematicapproach to the teaching-learning process); and technology ineducation (e.g. use of hardwares and softwares).

It is for the above underlying assumptions that theAsian Centre of Educational Innovation for Development(ACEID), UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia andthe Pacific (PROAP), Bangkok convened a R e g i o n a lSymposium on Qualities Required of Education Today toSheet the Foreseeable Demands of the Tw e n t y-First Centuryfrom 16 to 18 August 1990 in Bangkok. The Symposiumwas organized immediately preceding the Twelfth RegionalConsultation Meeting (RCM) on the Asia and

Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation forDevelopment (APEID), 20-27 August 1990, and theProgramme Development Meeting (PDM), 28-31 August1990.

Nine eminent thinkers in Asia and the Pacific wereinvited to address the Symposium:

1. Dr. S. Maqsood Ali, Member of the PlanningCommission, Government of Bangladesh,Dhaka, Bangladesh

2. Mr. Isao Amagi, Chairman, Japanese NationalCommission for UNESCO, and Special Adviser,Ministry of Education, Science and Culture,Tokyo, Japan

3. Dr. Peter Ellyard, Director, AustralianCommission for the Future, Victoria, Australia

4. Mr. A. Kadir Jasin, Editor, New Strait Times,Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

5. Prof. Kim Duk-Choong, Professor of Economics,Sogang University, Executive Counsellor,Daewoo Corporation, Seoul, Republic of Korea

6. Prof. Chitra Naik, Honorary Director, StateResource Centre for Non-formal Education,Indian Institute of Education, Pune, India

7. Dr. Raja Roy Singh, Former Assistant DirectorGenera-Director of UNESCO Regional Officefor Education in Asia and the Pacific, Evanston,Illinois, U.S.A.

8. Fr. Miguel Ma Varela, President, Association forNon-traditional Education in the Philippines,Metro Manila, Philippines

Education for the twenty-first century

ii

9. Dr. Prawase Wasi, Ramon Magsaysay Awardee,and Professor of Medicine, Chairman of theNational Epidemiology Board, Siriraj Hospital,Bangkok, Thailand.

The chairmen and/or senior members of the NationalDevelopment Groups (NDG) on APEID from 26 out of 29Member States of APEID, not only listened to theabove-cited nine prominent speakers, but more importantlythey debated with the speakers on the views expressed. It isto be noted that the chairmen of the NDG are mostlySecretaries of Education or their equivalent in APEID'SMember States, namely, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh,Bhutan, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Fiji,India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Lao People's DemocraticRepublic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, NewZealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republicof Korea, Samoa, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Sri Lanka,Thailand, Tonga, Turkey and USSR.

The UNESCO Secretariat of the Symposium consistedof the following:

1. Mr. Hedayat Ahmed, Director, UNESCOPROAP

2. Mr. Shozo Iizawa, Deputy Director, UNESCOPROAP

4. Mr. Prem Kasaju, Specialist in DevelopmentalResearch in Education, ACEID

3. Mr. Leonardo de la Cruz, Head, ACEID, UNES-CO PROAP

5. Ms. Lucille Gregorio, Specialist in Science andTechnology Education, ACEID

6. Ms. Charatsri Vajrabhaya, Programme Specialistin Educational Innovation, ACEID

7. Mr. Takao Kamibeppu, Associate Expert, ACEID

Preface

iii

The UNESCO Secretariat is most grateful to the spea-kers for honouring its invitation and sharing their views onthe future of education, and education for the twenty-firstcentury.

Gratitudes are due to the chairmen and senior mem-bers of the NDG of APEID, most of whom served as discus-sants of the papers, for their-dynamic intellectual dialogueswith the speakers, and among themselves. These debatesbrought into focus some of the issues and problems faced byAPEID Member States in charting a preferred future for edu-cation. The discussion of various scenarios of the twenty-firstcentury also became an invaluable input into the 12th RCMof APEID and the PDM, especially in regard to the priorityprogrammes and strategies of APEID during the next projectcycle, 1992-1996, as well as at the threshold of thetwenty-first century.

The UNESCO Secretariat is most appreciative of thecontributions of resource persons who helped the Secretariatin taking extensive notes of the deliberations, in havingpost-session interactions with the speakers, and in preparingthe summaries of the deliberations on each of the papers,which became one of the springboards for the discussions ofprogrammes for the fifth cycle of APEID. The resource per-sons were:

1. Prof. Kerry Kennedy, Dean, School ofEducation, University College of SouthernQueensland, Toowoomba, Australia

2. Dr. T.N. Dhar, Former Chief Technical Adviser(UNESCO), India

3. Dr. Milagros Ibe, Professor of Science andMathematics Education, College of Education,University of the Philippines, Quezon City,Philippines

4. Dr. Panom Kawkamnerd, Director-General,Department of Curriculum and Instruction


iv

Development, Ministry of Education, Bangkok,Thailand

5. Mr. J. Ratnaike, Consultant to ACEID, UNESCOPROAP, Bangkok, Thailand

The Secretariat is grateful to the Governments ofAustralia, China, India, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, Republicof Korea and Thailand for their voluntary contributions toAPEID, part of which was used to finance the above-citedRegional Symposium.

The wealth of knowledge, viewpoints and intellectualinteractions expressed during the Symposium would not havebeen properly synthesized and published in book form, had itnot been for the kind agreement of Dr. Raja Roy Singh,Former Assistant Director-General/Director of UNESCORegional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific, towrite a book on how education is perceived for the Asia andPacific region in the twenty-first century. He not only madefull use of the ideas presented at the Symposium, but alsoadded his own perception and vision of the preferred futureof education. UNESCO PROAP wishes therefore to recordits profound thanks and gratitude to Dr. Raja Roy Singh forhis acceptance of this task, for his total commitment anddedication to the education of future generations of the chil-dren of Asia and the Pacific, and for his constant readiness tomake intellectual contributions towards the fulfillment of themission of UNESCO.

Hedayat Ahmed

DirectorUNESCO Principal Regional Office

for Asia and the Pacific

Preface

v

INTRODUCTION

There is all too evidently the phenomenon of "end-of-century" thinking, as the twentieth century draws to aclose. There is, however, also a widely prevalent sense thatthe pace of change, even turbulence, is accelerating as neverbefore. The next few decades, a generational span, may be asdifferent from the current half-century as the half-century hasbeen from the last hundred years. What may these changessignify for education? How does education respond?Traditionally education has been more pre-occupied with thepressures of the present rather than the anticipations of thefuture. A new context seems to be unfolding, in which thefuture has to be more deliberately thought of. The image ofAsia as plunged in thought while the legions of change thun-der pass does not quite hold.

The UNESCO Principal Regional Office for A s i aand the Pacific (PROAP) and the Asian Centre ofEducational Innovation for Development (ACEID) conve-ned in Bangkok in August 1990 a regional symposium todeliberate in the A s i a-Pacific context on the issues of chan-ge in education for the twenty-first century.l Speakers anddiscussants at the Symposium represented diff e r e n t

______________________________

1 The full title of the Symposium is "Regional Symposium on QualitiesRequired of Education Today to Meet Foreseeable Demands in theTwenty-first Century" (Bangkok, Thailand 16-18 August 1990)

vii

scholarly and professional backgrounds and came from diffe-rent countries in the Asia-Pacific region.2 It was my privilegeto participate in the Symposium and take part in the discus-sions not only at the Symposium but very productively in avariety of personal as well as informal small group discus-sions. The give-and-take of these informal discussions was astimulating experience to which I owe the first impulse towrite on the subject. With the courteous encouragement ofACEID, I have given way to that first impulse. This publica-tion is not a report of the Symposium; the views expressedare those of the author and do not express the views ofUNESCO or those of the Symposium participants.

The reflections on the surmising of education are inthe Asian context. The perceptions, whether made explicit orotherwise, are of the historical trends and persistent problemsand development aspirations which underline the regionalscene. This may seem to tie the surmising issues to a specificcontext anal is open to at least two opposing reservations. Onone count it may be pointed out with justification that gene-ral reflections on the nature and process of education areequally applicable to other and different areas and contexts.On the other hand, it may be argued that in a region as diver-se as Asia-Pacific is, any set of issues cannot possibly fit allcountries in any uniform way. In response, it may suffice tosay that the questions that are raised in the issues, or "theissues behind the issues" derive their wider applicability pre-cisely because they are grounded in particularities. To thismay be added the observation that in the fundamental pro-cesses of education, there are more commonalities acrossnational boundaries or development divides than in mostother human endeavours.______________________________2 At Annex A is given a list of speakers and the titles of the papers they pre-

sented at the Symposium with the code numbers of the papers. The papersare cited in this publication by their code numbers.


viii

The presentation in the book is in two parts which aretitled Perspectives of Change (Part One), and Prospects(Part Two). They are indicative of the assumptions on whichthe role of education for the future is surmised. The point toemphasise is that the surmising is not about what the futurewill be, but about the consequences and imperatives for thedevelopment of education which flow from the issues as theyare forming. The point is made repeatedly in the book that sofar as education is concerned, the future is already now.Educational re-direction and reform is not seen in the exten-ded time-frame of the new century, but rather in a generatio-nal span of two or three decades.

The main theme in Part One is that of change. To thinkof education in a time-perspective is to think in terms ofchange, and change implies choice. Education may be seen asat the cross-roads of development choices. What are theforces which bear on these choices? There was a remarkabledegree of convergence in the views of the participants fromAsia-Pacific at the Symposium on this question. Apart fromthe general formative trends which seem to hold for all coun-tries, there would be country-specific factors. The generalformative trends are both positive and negative. Among posi-tive ones are knowledge explosion, notably science and tech-nology; the development quest of the nations for better quali-ty of life; a resurgence of human spirit for ending marginali-zing; emerging interdependent world. On the negative sideare problems of mortal danger to mankind such as: scienceand technology applied to destructive purposes; environmen-tal degradation; population growth; and a crisis of humanvalues.

The role of education is not one of following andreacting to trends. Education has to be in the lead andplay a major role in societal development of the future.At that point, Part Two, P rospects, takes up the themeof envisioning the education to create the future. T h ecore elements of the envisioned education are centredon the human being and on human development. T h i s

Introduction

ix

calls for a holistic view of the educational process and a fun-damental qualitative transformation of education in terms ofits content, methods and outcomes. Crucial in the qualitativetransformation process are: learner-driven learning, creativi-ty, values. Both the education system and the educational pro-cess should serve to realize the learning society. In this pro-cess, values form the centre that holds together the individualand society through the flux of change.

The surmising of education for the future is not aspeculative exercise. In the concluding chapter 8, some of thepractical implications are discussed. Future surmising shouldadd a new dimension to the planning of education and to edu-cational policy-making processes.

This book is offered in the hope that it will help insome measure in the ongoing debate and thinking in theregion on the reform and reorientation of education.

Gratefully acknowledged is the help and encourage-ment of Mr. D.J. Vickery by his comments and criticisms onthe earlier paper by the author, on which the present publica-tion is based.

I am indebted to the participants at the Symposiumand to friends and fellow workers, too numerous to mentionindividually, for the comments and guidance they offered mein the preparation of this publication. I owe a special debt ofgratitude to the Asian Centre of Educational Innovation andDevelopment (ACEID), notably Mr.Leonardo de la Cruz,Miss Charatsri Vajrabhaya, and Miss Kularb Buranamontrifor reviewing the draft and helping to give it form, and theLibrary of the Regional Office for making available to me itssplendid reference facilities, and finally, the Publications Unitof the Office for making the publication possible.

May 1991 Raja Roy Singh


x

Chapter One

TIME: CHANGE: EDUCATION

Time Future

The perception of a difference between "before" and"after", lying on either side of the present moment, is the stuffof daily experience from which the regularity of everyday lifeproceeds. There is also a sense that "before" is irreversible,while "after" except that sliver of time that is bound to theimmediate present is unknowable, unpredictable, unfore-seeable. However, the human quest to know, to predict, toanticipate has continued unflagging. Its nature however, overtime has changed in the consciousness that possibly the futu-re time is not after all unidirectional in the image of "time'sarrow", but has multiple possibilities.

At one level of perception, unrelated to exercises inpredictability or anticipation, future-time is a dimension ofexistence and cannot be apprehended apart from it. This istime-in-life as seen by the sage, the seer, the rishi, the roshi.One of the Symposium speakers recalled how the culturalheritages handed down by the seers fashion the profoundestawareness which elevates life above the constraints imposedon it. In his words4:

______________________________

3 See page 1 of Introduction for the full title of the Symposium, and Annex Afor the participating speakers and the papers they presented (referred tohereafter by their code numbers)

4 SYM/M.A-1

"I have inherited these ideas from four great reli -gions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity.All of them have taught me one thing in common: I amimportant as a creation of God and my future is linkedto a cosmic universe. I therefore .... talk about the futu -re not only in terms of two or three decades but also interms of my eternal existence .... Further, my existen -ce in future is linked with my existence in the present.My present action decides my future. How I live mypresent, therefore, matters. "

Yet another "seeing" and "revealing" the future-time isprophecy. In its exalted form, it is a breaching of time's irre-versibility at the points where time and transcendence inter-sect; it implies a very special relationship between humanevents and time and the time-less. At the human level, pro-phecy is forecasting the future by inspired action, a matchingup of facts to vision. It is in this sense that a speaker at theSymposium invoked the capacity to make a prophecy5; hesaid:

"While we cannot deliver the whole future wewould prefer for ourselves, we can still deliver a fairproportion of it. This is provided we take the trouble tocarefully articulate where we would like to go; tomake a prophecy. What we then need to do is to act tohelp realize as much of that prophecy as is possible.Therefore the first suggestion .... about educating forthe 21st century is that we must better develop ourcapacity to make visions. "

The realm of the seers and prophets is vision-centred.However far into the future it may extend, indeed to infinity,it rests basically on changing the present, the human kind,towards actualizing the future.

______________________________

5 SYM/P.E- 4


2

In the practical domain, the desire to know the futureor to predict its nature and anticipate its likely occurrencesstems from the desire to gain a measure of control over it. Theconduct of daily life would be impossible if its regularitieswere disrupted in chaos. These regularities largely fashionedby the present and the recent past can, however, convey asense of certitude only in the short-term future; the longer thetime perspective, the greater the degree of unpredictability.This is notably so in the dynamic — as opposed to the mecha-nical — realm of human actions and choices. At theSymposium one of the speakers6 referred to the uncertaintiesthat hedge predictions, saying, "More often than not predic -tions have gone wrong partly or entirely, and the realisationhas grown that since there is no precision in human actionsand reactions, presaging the future of mankind with exactitu -de is just not possible. Yet, planned preparation for the futu -re has been found necessary in most countries because evena broad charting of future paths does seem to help in conten -ding with eventualities whenever they occur."

Seemingly, human "rationality" is more comfortablewith certitude and predictability than with the free play ofchoice and uncertainty. The laws and predictions ofspace-time events in the mechanical universe have an attrac-tive ring of finality to a rational mind. In relation to thehuman society, the images or laws of development propoun-ded by the Utopians or by "scientific" thinkers are but varia-tions on the themes of inevitability and necessity. In this viewthere is only one future for the human society towards whichall the past and the present are propelling irresistibly, inevita-bly. Speculation about the future, it would seem, attracts nihi-lisms of all sorts. On the one hand there is the nihilism of thenotion that inevitability determines the future. On the otherhand, there is the nihilism of the proposition that there is nofuture except in mankind's individual or collective

______________________________

6 SYM/C.N-6

Time: Change: Education

3

imagination, and that consequently the future has to be inven-ted anew in order to give it reality.

Future as Possibilities

The future is not a single, unidirectional track; nor is ita void, rather, it is multiple possibilities; indeed, not a singlefuture but a number of possible futures. In human society, theconditions underlying the multiple futures as possibilities arein themselves various. The experiences, insights and trendscatalyzed by the past and the present, as much as the expec-tations and aspirations towards the desired images of the futu-re, go into the complex web of possibilities which constitutethe future. Quite clearly the future is not formed by merelyprojecting the past and the present; also it is not only theconsequences of present actions. What gives the past and thepresent their influence in the shaping of the futures is the col-lective, societal awareness of possibilities and of choice.

In terms of practical action, the view of the future asinvolving decisions regarding the choice of the "preferred"future in the range of multiple possibilities gives a totally dif-ferent orientation to planned action from the one implicit inthe usual forecasting methods. This is notably so in relationto the human systems, such as education. Educational deve-lopment becomes more consciously future-oriented ratherthan being only a medium for the transmission of the past; thesetting of goals for education becomes a crucially importantstrategy in effecting change. (We revert to this theme in theconcluding chapter).

In education, the future is intruding in the present inmany important ways. Children and young people who are inschool presently will be manning the work places in the firstdecade of the new century; they and the successive cohorts inthe next generation or so will be at the levers in their socie-ties. With the accelerating pace of change, the generationalshift is not a mere transition; it is a new beginning. This is


4

true of all societies, notably so of the developing societieswith a large proportion of young people. As they in risingnumbers pass through the life channels, how they are endo-wed or deprived in the present decades will largely determi-ne the "preferred" future of their societies by generating enor-mous energy and power to create a better world. In a very realsense, that future is now.

"Future that is now" is but a restatement of the energi-sing awareness that underlies setting of future-oriented goalsby which the present realities are re-shaped and new possibi-lities are generated. The setting of goals in a human system isnot primarily a matter of techniques. It is fundamentally afunction of judgement, of insight, of visioning by society —the seers' function. Without vision the future may be only anillusion. Vision-driven, the present and the future begin tomesh in and the uncertainty of the future is mitigated by thepresent foreseeing. A Symposium speaker addressed thisissue, saying:7,

"We need to think further ahead than we habituallydo. In many cases, this will mean envisioning theworld I would like to see when my own child is my cur -rent age. What opportunities will there be? Whatthreats will we face? Increasingly, we will be asked todo this anyway, whether we like it or not .... to thinkabout actions we need to take now in order to deliveroutcomes 40 years ahead. "

Change Process and Education

Bertrand de Jouvenel makes the case8 that "if society tendson the whole to conserve the present state of affairs, our presentknowledge has a high chance of being valid in the future. On theother hand, the future validity of our knowledge becomes______________________________

7 SYM/P.E48 Bertrand de Jouvenel. The Art of Conjecture. Basic Book Inc., New York 1967


5

increasingly doubtful as the mood of society inclines towardschange, and the changes promise to be more rapid." Further,it should be added that the perception of future-time hasalmost no role in a situation where neither knowledge norsocietal state is subject to change. Change then is a decisive-ly defining element in the choices that may be made in futu-re possibilities. Moreover, a society that remains rooted in its"present state of affairs" and its "present knowledge" cannotsubsist in isolation in the fast changing knowledge world oftoday, however hard it may try. The ongoing technological,social and developmental changes will sweep the cocoonedsociety into a future state of affairs without choice or controlof its destiny, a passive recipient and not an active agent.

Education in its widest sense is at cross-roads of socie-tal development and knowledge, and importantly, of dynamicchange processes and the capacities to make choices. The keyto understanding the situation of education is to recognizethat it is not an isolated phenomenon nor a dependent one; itreceives and contributes; it creates and is created. It is at itscreative best when it is interwoven with the totalsocial-human-knowledge environment of the future.

In the Symposium, the creative role of education infuture oriented development was specially stressed. A spea-ker used the physicist's term to describe its role as "unifiedfield-force"9 to indicate the interactions between human,social and environment "particles". He argued: "Educationdoes not exist in vacuum. It is determined by political andcultural milieu, beliefs, doctrines, economy, social mentalityand predominant world views. These determining environ -ments are now quickly changing We should be in a position tounderstand them and to be able to design education

______________________________

9 SYM/P.W.9


6

as the unified field force for development .... and create ahealthier future."

In emphasizing the need for future-oriented develop-ment of education, one is in fact pointing to the limitations of"re-active" education, that is education policy and practiceswhich only attempt to respond to changes or crises as theyoccur, or more often, after they have occurred. The image ofeducation as a "conservative" force refers to thispassive-reactive functioning of the education systems ratherthan to the element of continuity by conserving what is wor-thy. The reactive education policies and practices have in ahigh degree a propensity to homogenize and to stress "beha-vioural objectives" focused on the individual. On the otherhand the future-oriented education is actively promotive ofinnovation and dynamically evolving social goals. T h i sdichotomy runs like a thread through all the discussion in thefollowing chapters.

"The future is not some place we are going to, it is onewe are creating''l0. Creation implies a vision and choice. Itredefines knowledge; no longer is it sufficient that to know isonly to distil from the past; to know is also to question and toexercise choice and discernment about the future and to actaccordingly.

______________________________

10 Quoted in Report of the Symposium (International Symposium and RoundTable, Beijing China, November-December 1989)


7

Chapter Two

THE FRAMEWORK:EMERGING GROWTH POINTS: PROBLEMS

Educational Domains

Education is implicated in several domains whichinterpenetrate each other and give significance to each other.These domains cover a wide and multi-dimensional spec-trum. There is at one end, or rather at the centre, the indivi-dual learner and the learning process and what one learns andin consequence is able to give or make use of. There is theuniverse of knowledge including skills and empowerments,and the societal domain which defines the individual's livingas well as that of the group. Each of these is a growing anddeveloping organism, which gives a dynamic character toeach domain and to the whole complex. Each domain growsin magnitude, in complexity, and in organization. The educa-tional process in the individual is more complex now than inthe past; it is also organisationally different with the growthof the education systems. These systems reach out to wholepopulations who are involved in the educational process inone form or another on a scale of unprecedented magnitude.It is these domains and their interpenetrations that form theframework in which the future education of a society shouldbe seen.

8

The prospects of education in the future, even a deca-de or generation ahead, cannot be foreseen in terms of preci-se predictions. One can however discern certain manifoldtrends in the domains, which will not only set the futuredirection of education, but will also chart the pathways forgeneral societal development. Quite clearly, knowledge andits growth and increasing globalization is one such trend withmultiple consequences. Another force equally significant forthe future, though not quantifiable is the crystallisation oflong historical struggles through which social goals andvalues have emerged which are now irreversibly situated inthe mainstream of human development. These goals centreround ideas of social equity, human rights and freedoms.Increasingly they have come to embody the profoundestaspirations of the human spirit that define the pathways to thefuture. The interplay of these various forces is writ large inthe history of the twentieth century now drawing to itsconcluding decade.

This century has been the cruellest period in the entirehistory of mankind for what man has done to man — andcontinues to do — and for what man has done to the futuregenerations by what he has done — and continues to do —tothe environment. But this century is also the period, uniqueand beyond compare, for the human achievements in know-ledge. And it is also the period that now bears witness to theunfolding and universalization of the social imperatives,social equity and justice, human rights and freedoms . It is asif history is bearing witness that "every danger carries withinitself a saving grace" (Hölderlin). Another area of crucialimportance for future education is that defined by persistentand cumulatively growing problems which are spin-offs ofcontemporary technologizing civilisation. Environment is anoutstanding example. While the problems are technology-created, it is clear that they are least amenable to merely tech-nological solutions. There is an increasing lag between theproliferating problems and their technological solutions.Indeed, all experience goes to show that technology-created

The framework: emerging growth points: problems

9

problems do not yield to technological solutions alone.

There is a large measure of agreement among educa-tional thinkers in A s i a-Pacific countries about certainbroad-range central trends of development which have a bea-ring on the choices that may be ahead in changing education.The major components of these trends are suggested below tobe seen as framework for identifying some of the changes.

Exploding Knowledge: Science and Technology

The exponential growth of knowledge makes everydecade a watershed in human history. Humanity's life anddestiny and their meaning and purpose are perhaps more thanwhat this mode of knowledge comprises; but without thisknowledge surge in history, mankind surely would have beenso much less. The sense of progress in the life of mankindowes much, possibly all, to the phenomenon of growing, dee-pening, exploding knowledge.

In the last three centuries or so, science became themainspring of the growth of knowledge. Later science astechnology has become the moving force. The acceleratingpace of science and technology-based knowledge has beenextraordinarily high. It is estimated that now the body of thisknowledge is doubling every 10 to 12 years. To get a measu-re of this pace, it means that the new discoveries, inventionsand developments in the decade of the 1990s would be equalin volume to the knowledge earlier gathered over centuries.And it is not only the accelerating pace that holds attention;equally amazing is the spread that covers every segment ofexistence. The report of the Round Table Symposium(Beijing) draws attention to these developments:


10

"The world has never changed so rapidly.Beginning in the 1950s a series of technological revo -lutions commenced. Three of these now exist. They arebased on the technologies of the silicon chip whichhas generated the information revolution, the manipu -lation of the DNA molecule which has created the bio -technology revolution, and the creation of new advan -ced industrial materials. There is no reason not tothink that these three will not be joined by others in the1990s."11

Science and technology-based knowledge revolu-tion so vividly — and fearsomely — being demonstrated inthe latter half of the present century, has characteristics ofspecial significance for future-oriented education. First isthe fusion of knowledge and its application, which hasbeen the fertile ground for generating more knowledge andmore applications. The great turning points in the evolutionof human societies are marked by new knowledge, newinventions, and new applications: thus the transition fromthe agricultural base to the industrial base, and now in theadvanced countries, from the industrial base to automa-t i o n-communication technology base, ushering in what hasbeen called the"post-industrial" society. A notable charac-teristic at each transition is that both components, namelytheoretical knowledge and applied knowledge, increasee x p o n e n t i a l l y. Scientific knowledge and technologicalknowledge have to go hand in hand. The growth is markedby widespread spin-o ff effects. A Symposium speakers1 2

pointed out that "when an advanced and excellent techno -logy is widely diffused to other fields, it becomes innovati -ve technology by its spin-off effects. It is indispensable thata new technology should be developed into

______________________________

11 Report of the Round Table (International Symposium and Round Table,Beijing, People's Republic of China, November-December 1990)

12 SYM/I.A-2


11

industrial technology and a system of excellent management,in order to contribute to the development of industry andbusiness".

There is yet another characteristic of advancing scien-ce and technology. Each advance marks a new level of inte-gration in the knowledge domain. Traditionally man has triedto understand reality by breaking it down into different disci-plines and separating the process of understanding from theprocess of action. But now, increasingly, any problem callsfor knowledge from a range of disciplines. The capacity tosee a situation in wholeness and with the inter-linking of theparts is an important, indeed indispensable, way of accessingknowledge and creating more knowledge.

The revolutionary developments in science andtechnology have led in the last few decades to the emergenceof "knowledge-based" societies in which the central capital isknowledge. The notion is increasingly used to characterize"developed" societies as opposed to the "developing" socie-ties. Science and technology-based knowledge determinespervasively the economic production structures and hasincreasingly acquired, as it were, a life of its own.Increasingly the organizational structures of economic andsocial life are dominated by such knowledge embodied incomputerisation and cybernation and managed by "specia-lists" and large-scale, centralized bureaucracies. Society'svalues and standards are increasingly moulded by influencesderiving from these complex interpenetration and by the newelite of "knowledge workers". The Round Table (Beijing)referred in its discussions to some of the positive ways inwhich knowledge-based developments in the developedcountries hold out promise of the future. It said:


12

"Increasingly, wealth and prosperity are dependenton knowledge and skill. Developed countries havenever been so creative and innovative. They are delu -ging the world with new products and services basedon their brain-power and creativity. Their economicprosperity is based on the utilization of intellectualproperty and resources in the arts, the sciences andthe technologies, and through the development ofhighly skilled and continually learning work-forces."

13

Science and technology are now established as forcesof great power in the shaping of the futures. The developingcountries face the challenge of creating for themselves path-ways of learning which may lead to the mainstream of theknowledge revolution. It is clear that this cannot be accom-plished by one-small-step-at-a-time progression. It has to bea development leap. Nor do the pathways lie along theimprints of other development models. They have to be crea-tively adapted to the particular contexts within the frameworkof overall development goals.

Education is central to the knowledge-based societybecause it is the human being who is the creator, the preser-ver and sometimes tragically, the destroyer of knowledge.Without anticipating the discussion on this theme in a laterchapter, we may indicate here in broad terms what this meansfor education seen from the perspective of developingAsia-Pacific.

A"kn o w l e d g e-based" society is one that derivesfrom human potential. It is an "open" society, because it isnot about inert nature or about tools; it is about how menthink and create and become free. Its core is thinking,c r e a t i v i t y, and inventiveness. Past experiences and modelsdo not respond to this core in a changing world. In thisaspect, science and technology are one of the importantsources of empowerment of education to deal with andrespond to the demands and the unpredictabilities of the

______________________________

13 op.cit.


13

changing world, and to push back the "inner limits" whichman builds round his capacities in the form of prejudices,superstitions and ideological myopia.

Intellectual institutions (universities, colleges, resear-ch institutions, etc.) of the education complex have an increa-singly crucial role in societal development. Their functionsare threefold. They are knowledge generators; they are alsocentres of innovation; and importantly they are servicecentres for their communities, facilitating and promotingchange and development. In the developing countries scien-ce-technology's role in education is defined by these threefunctions held in dynamic balance. Given this, the complexof intellectual institutions will grow and diversify, embo-dying new institutionalised forms of development and inno-vation processes, and in modes of operation and controlwhich are likely to be highly decentralized rather than mono-polistic of knowledge-based power.

For developing Asia-Pacific, science and technologyare important, even central, for the alleviation of thesocio-economic problems. One of the Symposium speakersalluded to it in the following termsl4:

".... it is science alone that can solve the problemsof hunger, poverty, insanitation, illiteracy, supersti -tion, deadening custom and tradition .... halt thedegradation of the human condition .... and bringabout socio-economic and political changes conduci -ve to development, to reducing the miseries and stag -nation of traditional societies through modernization.... "

The world-wide experience gives little assurance thatthe goal can be reached by following the same "developmentmodels" which have demonstrated the power and also thesignificant______________________________

14 SYM/C.-6


14

limitations of science and technology. The search for suitablealternatives is an important component of the "developmentquest" (discussed subsequently).

To ignore the limitations of science and technologywould be to distort education's full contribution to humanwell-fare and to create a fatal flaw in the agenda of societalprogress. The first limitation is epistemological. The scienti-fic method is essentially analytic and reductionist and bringsinto play only the related range of cognitive capacities ofhuman intelligence. Holistic phenomena, such as the biologi-cal, are not capable of being understood by the reductionistmethod. In consequence we find that a whole range of humanapprehensions such as intuition, ethical thinking, aestheticperception are either treated as invalid or as irrelevant. Ineducation these modes of human apprehension are of the verysubstance of educational action if education is to be anythingmore them a mechanical exercise in conditioning.

Human sensibility has been riven by a deepening divi-sion between the scientific-technological mode of knowledgeand the intuitive-holistic mode. The scientific-technologicalpursuit is increasingly perceived as carrying its own justifica-tion and beyond questioning the validity of the use to whichits results are put. In effect there is a growing disjunction bet-ween science-technology and wisdom — that all encompas-sing attribute of human consciousness. A Symposium spea-kerl5 expressed this theme as follows:

"Unlike the science paradigm which totally rejec -ted the ancient spiritualistic-holistic paradigm, thenewly emerging world view will not reject science.Science and Mind will be integrated in the middlepath, elevating mankind to a new level of wisdom. ....Integration will be the new paradigm. "

______________________________

15 SYM/P.W-9


15

Another speakerl6 urged, "mankind would no doubtcontinue to seek knowledge through science, rational argu -ment, and intuition in order to make peace with nature. But atthis crucial moment of evaluating the past. it may need morewisdom, more humanity than mere technical knowledge."

All the experience of the current deepening crises ofenvironmental degradation, pollution, ecological imbalances,population problems and resources depletion underlines thefact that technology cannot solve the mortal problems that itcreates. More than half the total number of scientists andtechnologists are engaged in inventing and developing lethalweapons of mass destruction. A very substantial proportion ofthe "science knowledge explosion" has derived from work onthe means of destruction. The dread pursuit has now enteredthe biological sphere. "Human" and genetic engineering havethe power to modify human bodies, characteristics and men-tal abilities and intervene in the course of evolution. Addthese profound powers to the economic and organisationalstructures in which so much of science-technology growth ismeshed, and we have to face the dreadful thought that wha-tever science-technology would make a profit for an enterpri-se or would contribute to a nation's prowess to make war, thatscience and that technology would be developed and the"enterprise skills" needed for it would be nurtured. This isindeed a far cry from the hope expressed four decades ago byeminent scientist Erwin Schroedinger when he wrote:

"I consider science as an integrating part of ourendeavour to answer the one great philosophicalquestion which embraces all others, the one thatPlotinus expressed by his brief: "Who are we?" Andmore than that, I consider

______________________________

16 SYM/M.V-8


16

this not one of the tasks, but the task of science, the onlyone that really counts."

Whether the knowledge-explosion brings disasterupon mankind or helps to ease the burdens of suffering andrealize the hopes for a brighter life for humanity depends onman. It is for him to assign the role that science and techno-logy are to play. Science and technology just play the role thatman assigns by design or laissez-faire indifference or by aFaustian bargain. In the ultimate analysis the issue is not oneof science, but one of values which will guide man's applica-tion of science.l7

"The enemy, be it a city with millions of inhabi -tants, or a huge aircraft carrier with thousands onboard or an ICBM with awesome nuclear war headsstreaking across the sky, are merely blips on the radarscreen. But the same computer that helps in the desi -gning of the most deadly weapon and simulates deathand destruction can also be used to save lives in hos -pitals, in the air, on the sea and road .... The choice isours. "

And this is again where education comes in. It cannotoffer the whole solution, but in any solution, education is atthe core wherever human mind, will and action are involved.The type of knowledge that gives us even more knowledgeand invention has also to deepen to those sensibilities, per-ceptions and insights that help us to judge and discern whatknowledge is most worth. The stultifying effect of arid ratio-nality on human sensibility is movingly described by one ofthe greatest of scientists Charles Darwin in his auto biogra-phy. He wrote:

______________________________

17 Symposiumist Mr. Kadir Jasin (SYM/KJ-5) expressed the responsibility ofman's choice in the following graphic terms,


17

"Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry ofmany kinds .... gave me great pleasure, and even as aschool boy, I took intense delight in Shakespeare ....pictures gave me considerable and music very greatdelight. But now for many years I cannot endure toread a line of poetry .... I have also lost almost anytaste for picture or music, .... my mind seems to havebecome a kind of machine for grinding general lawsout of large collections of facts, but why this shouldhave caused the atrophy of that part of the brainalone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannotconceive.... The loss of these tastes is a loss of happi -ness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect,and most probably to the moral character, by enfee -bling the emotional part of our nature."

The Development Quest

Development is the expression of one of the profoun-dest forces shaping the current decades and setting the direc-tions for the future. The development process has manifolddimensions and is consequently seen with different emphasesin different societies.

Development has been a search rather than an achie-ved goal, but nothing like the collective consciousness that itnow represents has occurred at any time before on an almostuniversal scale. The development search is worldwide invol-ving in different ways, all societies. Seen in the broad pers-pectives of history, the development quest marks in essencethe heightened periods when the societies make choices oftheir future. What distinguishes the present century, notablythe latter half of it, is the increasing awareness of the act ofchoice implying a commitment of human and economic andpsychic resources to following up the choice. In the develo-ping countries, development has served as a magnet for natio-nal aspirations, more often frustrated than realized, but conti-nuing to carry an emotional charge, the feeling of


18

controlling one's own destiny. In the advanced societies thereis a compelling consciousness that the expanding economiesand the advancing technologies are assuming a life of theirown at the cost of the human agenda and the environmentalUnderlying the manifold expressions of development is nowthe recognition that development cannot be less than the rea-lization of the potential of human personality. As education isa vision of the individual, so development is a collectivevision of a society for itself.

The universalistic nature of development as a vision ofhuman societies is almost lost in the development gaps whichdivide the advanced countries and the developing countriesglobally, and within countries, (advanced and developingalike), the rich and the poor. These divides are widening; thepoor become poorer and the countries with poor resourcesslip further down the scale.

To illustrate in concrete terms, a Symposiumist descri-bed the conditions in the developing world, pointing out that:

19"Almost a billion humans today are literacy defi -cient and therefore incapable of participating effecti -vely in community living. Much less are they able toassume meaningful roles in development activities."

"One billion humans are living below the povertyline. More specifically, 20 per cent of the "haves"today own or use for themselves 80 per cent of the ear -th's assets and income. We are not surprised then tolearn that during the decade of the 80s in the UnitedNations family of 165 sovereign states, 75 per centwere classified as "poor."

______________________________

18 At the Syrnposium Mr. Isao Amagi (Japan) made the point with specialemphasis, saying "... we are facing a limit of natural resources and globalenvironmental issues. Strong technical-economic development bringsabout crises in the welfare of human beings and in culture." (SYM/I.A-2)

19 SYM/M.V-8


19

"One-and-a-half billion humans are in need of ade -quate medical facilities."

''Seventy-five million humans die yearly. Of those50 million or 66 to 73 per cent die because of starva -tion."

"Undernourished children are a class by them -selves. There were 2.2 billion of them in the 1980s."

Another Symposiurnist20 described the economic andsocial wastelands of an earlier era from which the developingcountries are now trying to re-construct their future:

"The rural areas of the newly liberated (from colo -nial rule) nations had become impoverished. The tra -ditional skills of the artisans and their local marketshad been destroyed by exported foreign goods.Landless and small farmers who abounded in therural population, suffered from chronic underemploy -ment. Lack of health services and communication faci -lities compounded their difficulties. Perpetual, heavyindebtedness caused by periodic unemployment andlack of suitable learning-networks for improvement ofskills and basic education, left these marginalizedrural people to their own fate which in many casesmeant high child mortality, maternal mortality, poorhealth and nutrition for the entire family, and a highbirth rate. The economic base of the rural areas hasbeen weakened right down to the roots and despite thew e l f a re and community development pro g r a m m e swhich began as far back as the 50s, the rural situationhas not materially improved. Disparities have furthergrown as between the urban and the rural areas, inspite of the rise in the GNP in some of these develo -ping countries."

______________________________

20 SYM/CN-6


20

Another speaker2l pointed out the development dividewithin the countries:

"In the Third World countries which represent themajority of humanity, unbalanced development is ageneral phenomenon. It is as if there are two countriesin one — the modem elites and the rural and urbanpoor. The modem elites are interconnected to theinternational elites more than they are to their pover -ty-stricken fellow nationals who dig garbages for foodand subsist on suboptimal income from agriculturalproducts and low labour wages to subsidise the indus -trial sector. Economic and social gaps are wideningleading to social consequences such as uprooting ofpeople, crimes, prostitution, child abuse, etc."

Because so much of the human problematique has aneconomic cast and economic variables appear to be more ame-nable to directional control, development was, in the first flushof the quest, equated with economic growth. Development wasseen as a set of economic growth targets to be achieved by cen-tralized planning. The human beings became economic com-modities with skills to market and incomes to acquire. T h i sapproach was reinforced by the application of the statistical indi-cators of the developed economies to the developing economiesin order to measure "underdevelopment." A " c a t c h i n g-u p -w i t h-t h e-d e v e l o p e d-countries" syndrome was created which ten-ded to distort the development process. The singlethrust empha-sis on industrialisation that marked the path of development ofthe present-day advanced countries has had a greater influenceon the development strategies of most of the developing coun-tries than any other factor. There was that spellbinding fantasythat, given a certain rate of economic growth, a country's econo-my would become self-sustaining and the country______________________________

21 SYM/P.W-9


21

would have arrived at the table of the rich. No matter that thegeneral masses of people remained deprived and consigned tothe anonymity of neglect; the prosperity would "trickledown" in time. There is ample evidence that such "tricklingdown" does not occur; and that an exclusive focus on econo-mic growth has not only failed to solve social and politicalproblems. Certain types of growth have actually caused orexacerbated them. Has development only succeeded inconverting poverty and all that goes with it into "modernizedsqualor", compounded by population growth and the urbandrift?

If the development quest is seen to have run a veryuneven course, the lessons of experience are crucially impor-tant for the future.

All the experience goes to prove that development thatis tied to a single "leading sector" or a "single thrust" leads tomagnified crises. Thus the exclusive focus on economicgrowth has resulted in the developing, countries in deepeningpoverty, creating marginalized population groups, deadly pol-lution, urban ghettos, social rootlessness and cultural waste-lands. At another level, unrestrained consumption styles andmaterial possessions lead to the distortions of societal life bygreed and avarice. The single-thrust development based ontechnology has led to dangerous depletion of non-renewableresources and to environmental degradation and to the domi-nance of societal life by large-scale centralized organisations.The single-thrust planning has led to the concentration ofpower, breeding manipulative and arbitrary controls of socie-tal life.

The development quest therefore is also a questfor "another development" calling for new forms ofgrowth which are designed around improving the quali-ty of life of the people. The development paths in thisAnother developmental must start from the human base,measuring the socio-cultural and economic progress interms of meeting human needs, acquiring knowledge,


22

realizing aesthetic gains, controlling social problems andenhancing the quality of life so that individuals may be ableto go forward towards their own goals of self-realization. Thehuman goals of such development will provide the frame-work for scientific and technological development the choiceof technologies, industries, agricultural promotion and for theorganizations, financial and others, as well as the social poli-cies aimed at overcoming initial inequalities. In such deve-lopment, not bigness for its sake, but rather small technolo-gies and production units, small firms and enterprises, highskill human inputs, are the decisive sources of economic anddevelopmental vitality. The current decade is wit-nessing theproductivity miracle of smallness in the most advanced coun-tries of the world. The largest shares of income growth andemployment generation are to be found in small businessesand entrepreneurial units. The key is the high skill and highcreative human input.

The report of the World Commission on Environmentand Development, Our Common Future (the BrundtlandReport 1987) has given the world a call for sustainable deve-lopment with a view to creating an ecologically sustainableworld. The concept is no less relevant to the larger "environ-ment of living" and life-support systems in the human values.

There is another important dimension to this humanis-tic development, brought sharply in focus by the currentdecades; that is, the ending of marginalization.

Historian-thinker Lord Acton saw human history as anunfolding of the idea of liberty. Despite the setbacks, onewould like to believe in this vision and in a broadening move-ment of human spirit breaking down the shackles of prejudi-ce and rapacity which mankind has been carrying around asits own prison.


23

This century, notably in the last few decades, is wit-nessing a unique resurgence of human spirit, struggling intothe light from out at the margin —women, minority peoples,the economically and socially dispossessed and politicallyrendered voiceless. This is a development in irreversiblecourse. The centre-periphery, the first world-third world andsimilar dichotomies are now worn-out masks. At the sametime, this resurgence is shifting the foci of conflict to withinthe countries — the majority groups and the minority groups,race against race, the holders of exclusive power against thedispossessed. These divisions have underlined that diversityand not uniformity, pluralism and not homogeneity, organicand not undifferentiated, are the paths of development intothe future.

It is this resurgence of human spirit which, more thanany other force, will define the coming decades — the vastmajority of mankind moving out of the shadows of poverty,neglect and anonymity. This development will determine in asubstantial degree for the majority of mankind the educatio-nal, cultural, economic and political institutions of the future.This surely is the great turning point which will make thefuture different from the past.

Education is at the heart of humanistic development.The goals of future-oriented education are defined by thedevelopment process as the collective vision of the society.Education as knowledge is one of the creative elements inthe formation of that collective vision, and is also one of theimportant means for realizing the agenda of human ascentfrom the shadows out. Developmental transformation occurswhen, and not before, there is a confluence of constructives o c i o-economic factors, the knowledge base, the engage-ment of human resources and a fundamental revolution ofvalues. The development process then becomes a holisticstructure and no factor in it — economic cultural, social orintellectual — can be understood except in relation to the


24

whole. Education has a catalytic role in each of the elementsas well as in the development process as a whole.

The Emerging Interdependent World

One of the decisive turning points in mankind's pro-gress towards a future that will be different from the past liesin the current developments in human affairs which are dra-wing the world irreversibly as an interlinked and interrelatedentity. National economies are rapidly becoming internatio-nal and transnational; more than one quarter of the world'sgross national product is accounted for by the internationalsectors. There is an expanding process of international pro-duction sharing and a global redistribution of labour andindustries. Instantaneous communication which commandthe business of fices or penetrate the homes everywhere arebreaking down the walls of seclusion and isolation. As theeconomic-production factors become increasingly global,they create the conditions for the exploration of resourcesglobally. Research and development as well as managerialresources are created and utilized transnationally. Nowhere isthe reality of the new interlinked world more vividly, andeven frighteningly, defined than in the problems of environ-ment, pollution, ecological balance or the spread of dread dis-eases.

One of the Symposiumists22 saw the powerful forcesthat have been released in terms of "economic pull" and the"push factor" of fear. He said:

"Much of this globalization process is being drivenby ... "economic pull" which involves the rationaliza -tion of economic arrangements on a regional basis, ....slowly increasing co-operative globalism ....Technology is helping to

______________________________

22 SYM/P.E-4


25

build a single highly networked world. It is alreadypossible for billions of people to participate in a singleevent (via communication technology) .... Finally, theworld is being united by ecologically driven 'fear"....Around the world this fear of major globalecological problems is beginning to ,enforce furtherco-operation between nations... We are rushing head -long into an era of co-operative globalism while weare barely prepared for it. There is an urgent need forus to create a paradigm of co-operative globalism orwe are all likely to be trapped by problems caused bynational identity."

Another Symposiumist23 approached the issues froma somewhat different perspective, specially the question ofnational or cultural identity.

"In the past people were isolated in cultural poc -kets. Today, and more so in the future, people are moreclosely linked into the global community through com -munication, travels, the market system and the com -mon concern on environment. The Gaffer has no poli -tical or cultural boundaries. Cultural differences willand should remain and the global citizen will have tolearn to appreciate cultural heterogeneity, to see thebeauty of pluralism instead of reacting with hostilityto it."

Does the emergence of an interdependent world meana global movement toward homogeneity and dominant pat-terns, a monolithic system with one "dominant" language,one controlling structure? Or will the emerging One Worldconsist of different but interacting parts, each part with itsown past, present and future? The movement towards a OneWorld vision is essentially of the different parts coming toge-ther in new networks of relationships serving the differentia-ted growth of all. Indeed the globalizing movement itself isleading to a renewal and______________________________

23 SYM/P.W-9


26

resurgence of various languages and cultures. It is the senseof unity through diversity that is the main characteristic of theemergent interdependent world. It implies recognizing differ-ences while being simultaneously aware of the common bin-ding links and responsibilities. This calls for profound socialconsensus and new values orientation.

It is not only the One World struggling to be bornwhich the issue of pluralism addresses; more immediately,the national societies have to face up to this challenging issuein the diversities of cultures, religions, ethnic groups and lan-guages.

Even while these profound changes are under way,corresponding changes in human awareness, breadth of per-ception and attitudes are lagging, giving rise to new areas ofconflicts, tensions and confrontations. The fact of globalinterdependence and its attitudinal correlate, the need formutual understanding and effective co-operation, are beingassimilated only too slowly and uncertainly in the conscious-ness of the nations.

The Looming Problems

The scientific and technological achievements whichso compellingly call up future images of co-operative inter-national order have also generated problems that obscure andcloud these images. Indeed the problems rather than theachievements begin to define the future. They are the uniqueproducts of modern times. Pre-eminent among them are theproblems of environment and the problem of populationgrowth. There are several features which the problems havein common.

F i r s t l y, as pointed out earlier, they are createdby the technological progress which however lags inproviding the solutions; for example, industrialisationin relation to environment or population growth inrelation to medical advances. Secondly, these pro-blems are not "origination-bound"; their impact and


27

consequences become quickly global. Of these problems itcan be aptly said, no problem is an island, entire of itself.Driven by the accelerating pace of technological advance, theglobal problems carry an impending sense of crisis in humanaffairs and of tragically widening disparities in quality of lifeamong peoples of the world. Thirdly, these problems arebound up in various ways with the realm of human attitudes,perceptions and values. Any solutions of these problems willhave to engage in important ways the human realm. Theexperience is all too clear that a fundamental shift in presentoperative values and human awareness and perceptions isnecessary to complement legislative and other regulatoryactions with a view to reversing the course on which the pro-blems of environment and population growth have set man-kind.

Broadly speaking, the problems associated with theenvironment have their origin in the industrialised countries,and the problems of population growth are in the main in thedeveloping countries. They are both of overriding concern inthe Asian region where both industrialization and populationgrowth are converging in the current decades.

Environment

The environment crisis is fundamentally the result ofunrestrained and improvident consumption and use of natu-ral resources notably in industrial processes and products. Inpursuit of short-term gains, man is introducing into thee c o-systems large numbers of new chemicals, industrialwastes and pollutants, and in other ways creating biologicaldisorders. Whole water systems are turning into deserts;deforestation is denuding the earth; radio-isotope contamina-tion from nuclear power, land degradation, the rapid extinc-tion of plant and animal species, acid rain, industrial wastedisposal —all are rapidly assuming life-threatening magnitu-de. The ecological hazards are increasing much faster


28

than the application of solutions. Though they have their ori-gin in the industrialised countries, the newly industrialisedcountries following the same role model of development areadding to them with equal degree of unrestraint. The conse-quences are rapidly impacting globally both in the developedand the developing countries, for example, climatic change,ozone depletion, acid rain, water pollution, nuclear waste,etc.

The call for "sustainable development" by the WorldCommission on Environment and Development (1987) istimely, that is, "development which meets the needs of presentgenerations without compromising the capacity of futuregenerations to meet them."

Education's important role in contributing to the crea-tion of an economically and ecologically sustainable futurelies both in the domain of values and attitudes and in thedomain of knowledge.

In the domain of values and attitudes, sustainabledevelopment calls for a new perception of man's relationshipwith nature, one of harmony and caring instead of control,depredation and violence. In the domain of knowledge, theconcept of sustainable development makes it imperative thatthere be closer integration of the various areas of knowledgewhich at present are so rigidly compartmentalized. The WorldConference on Environment and Development said that weshould merge ecology and economics and indeed the naturaland social sciences. Similarly the training for professions andtrades should include knowledge of ecology and economics."An engineer, architect or industrial designer who has a desi -re to carry out his or her professional practice in an ecologi -cally sound way, will help to create an ecologically and eco -nomically sound and secure future for all of us."24______________________________24 SYM/P.E-4


29

Population25It is estimated that it took the first sixteen hundred

years (AD) for the world population to double from 250 mil-lion to 500 million; the next doubling period was two hun-dred years, and then one hundred years, reaching 2 billion atabout 1930. It doubled in the next 45 years, to 4.1 billion by1975 and shows every sign of topping 6 billion by 2000. Mostof the population growth (92 per cent) is in the developingcountries. The biggest increases in numerical terms are inSouth Asia and Africa. Even if there is consistent decline infertility rates, it will be 40-50 years before an equilibriumlevel is reached.

The accelerating population growth in the developingcountries is changing in important ways the age-compositionof the population. Young people under twenty-five nowconstitute the largest age-group segment.

In the short term the vast increase of the populationhas created enormous economic problems and social tensionsand has widened social inequalities. At the same time theincrease in the number of young people can be a decisiveforce in dynamic cultural change and progress, provided thattheir development potential and innovative and enterprisingspirit are developed and fully mobilized in public policies andactions. Whether these rising numbers of young people areempowered in the current decades by wise educational actionor are left to drift by societal indifference will determine whe-ther their passage in the future decades is like unto an angryriver in spate or one with dykes and embankments, genera-ting enormous energy and power to construct a better world.

Aclosely related and equally serious problem is the mas-sive urban drift which is creating super-urban agglomerations

______________________________

25 SYM/M.V-8


30

with totally fragile and inadequate infrastructure and life sup-port systems. More than 70 per cent of these super urbanagglomerates are in developing Asia.

While food production has kept ahead of populationgrowth in Asia, thanks to improved agriculture technologies,the life support systems have been put in jeopardy withwidespread deforestation, dislocation of river systems andincreasing health hazards.

Again it needs to be recognized that the problemswhich now mark the turning points for the human race areclosely inter-linked and interwoven —population growth,environment, the development quest, the knowledge explo-sion. Are perceptions, attitudes and values which may haveserved well enough in the past for isolated societies, big orsmall, good enough for the world now in the making? If theseattitudes and values will no longer suffice, then this is themost important premise in designing the education for thefuture.

Crisis of Human Values

While the knowledge "explosion" is extending man'smental outreach and technology is utilized to bring wealthand economic power at least to a part of the world, thedomain of human values has diminished and continues toerode. There is a deepening sense of crisis moving in like adark shadow. The peoples of the world are being broughttogether closer to a degree that each and every part is aff e c-ted by the fortunes of every other. But that very image of thee m e rging one world reflects back, magnified, the mortaldanger to which mankind's future is being committed by thedestructive use of the powers that expanding knowledge hashelped to create. So it is that the calm and peace of advan-cing knowledge is seething with the hidden turbulence at theheart of the human condition. More than one million dollarsare spent per minute to create weapons of mass


31

destruction. More lethally, the minds that plan for ultimatedestruction are creating new minds that can only function ina destroying environment. It is not that mankind lacks know-ledge; it is wisdom that is in crisis, wisdom that Chinese thin-ker Mencius almost two thousand years ago defined as "thefeeling of right and wrong."26

Is this crisis the beginning of the moral collapse of thepresent order set up on a ring of national egoisms, or is it abeginning of a search for a new integration as one period ofhuman civilization draws down to a close?

Whatever in a historical perspective the nature of thecrisis may be, the challenge it poses is real enough, and theresponse to the challenge will determine the moral, indeedthe spiritual, orientation of societies in the next century andthe role of education in them.

Fundamentally the principal sources of the crisis ofvalues are twofold. The power derived from the unpreceden-ted capabilities for doing things, the know-how, has outpacedby far the capacity of knowing what and why. The know-howhas brought the power to control, to subdue, to direct; and byits very efficacy, it has weakened and progressively displacedthe perception and discernment of the ends that transcend theknow-how.

Secondly, the sense of crisis is engendered by the eco-nomic forces which in conjunction with technology havecreated new configurations of power, organisation and mate-rial wealth and, correspondingly, a set of "economic values"which are basically in conflict with "human values". Evenmore than "technological values", economic values nourishedby man's______________________________

26 "The feeling of compassion is the beginning of humanity; the feeling ofcontrition is the beginning of righteousness; the feeling of deference andcompliance is the beginning of propriety, the feeling of right and wrong isthe beginning of wisdom. Men have these Four Beginnings just as theyhave their four limbs. Having these FOUR Beginnings, but saying thatthey cannot develop them, is to destroy themselves (The Book; ofMencius)


32

instinctual drives are deterministic and relativistic. Their har-shest, almost brutal, enunciation was made by one of the mostbrilliant economic thinkers of the present century, LordKeynes. His judgement made nearly sixty years ago comesthrough to the present time as if magnified on a screen of glo-bal application. He wrote:

"For at least another hundred years, we must pre -tend to ourselves and to everyone that fair is foul andfoul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avariceand usury and precaution must be our gods for a litt -le longer still."

In the present trends towards this reversal of valueswhen fair is foul and foul is fair lies the crisis of humanvalues and the loss of direction in our lives.

Values are inseparable from a sense of worthiness.They are the very ideas and perceptions through which weexperience and interpret our relations to ourselves, to othersand the world. They relate to the individual and to society,operatively different but closely interwoven. The crisis ofvalues is thus to be seen both at the individual and societallevels. In the individual it shows itself in a sense of drift andhelplessness, in an alienation of meaning and purpose. Thisalienation may be a result of the neglect and anonymity impo-sed by poverty or by the impersonality and mindless directio-nal control of technological organization. The individualbecomes an object to be manipulated and disposable. At thesocietal level, the crisis expresses itself in increasing frag-mentations and divisions in the population, in the diminutionof human relationships, increasing depredation of the naturalenvironment, diminished regard or concern for the future andincrease in all forms of violence. Underlying the crisis in allits different forms is a persistent undervaluing of the humanbeing.


33

Some of the facets of the malaise are caught sensitive-ly by Heilbroner27:

"When men can generally acquiesce in, even relish,the destruction of their living contemporaries, whenthey can regard with indifference or irritation the fateof those who live in slums, rot in prison, or starve inlands that have meaning only insofar as they are vaca -tion resorts, why should they be expected to take thepainful actions needed to prevent the destruction offuture generations whose faces they will never live tosee? .... The question, then, is how we are to summonup the will to survive — not perhaps in the distantfuture, where survival will call on those deep sourcesof imagined human unity, but in the present andnear-term future, while we still enjoy and strugglewith the heritage of our personal liberties, our ato -mistic existences."

Values are not a fixed body of conventions; indeedwhenever they are treated as such, they decay. Values growand deepen. In the history of human progress, certain periodsstand out illuminated by flashes of insights of the sage, theseer, the prophet or the dedicated community, which havemarked out new paths for the searching humanity. Such werethe insights which gave to humanity the values of compas-sion, love of fellow human beings, justice, truth, awareness ofhigher good, virtue, beauty, self-realization. The insight ofwhich a value is born is gnosis, moral wisdom. To use a termfrom modern psychology, it is divergent thinking, branchingout and moving up to new levels of meaning. In the indivi-dual, a value conviction is a prompting to a higher commit-ment in a society, it is a goal of collective consciousness. Atthe Symposium, a speaker28 spoke about the individual as a"net giver":______________________________

27 Robert L. Heilbroner, "An Enquiry into The Human Prospect" W. Norton &Co., New York. (1974)

28 SYM/M.A-1


34

"Man's greatest enemy is inside him, not outside. Itis relatively easier for man to conquer the world thanto conquer himself. A man comes in this world for afixed period. During this period he gives something tothe world and he also takes something from the world.If he gives more to the world than what he takes, hebecomes a 'net giver'. If he takes more from the worldthan what he gives, he becomes a 'net itaker'."

The question of values is historically as well as in thecontemporary setting of deep concern in Asia. It has its rootsin religion, in culture and in the contemporary gropings andsearches. A Symposiumist29 dealt with the question in thatperspective.

"Certain intrinsic values have been recognized byall cultures in Asia for hundreds of years past.Altruism, originating in the love and concern of onehuman being for another, has been respected as thehighest human value, essential for the survival andfurther evolution of mankind. The Persian poet Saadiwrote as far back as the 12th century, in his classicGulistan:

"All men are members of the same body Created from one essence. If fate brings suffering to one member The others cannot stay at rest. You who remain indifferent to the burden of pain of others Do not deserve to be called human."

Such humanism has been the common thre a dthat runs through all religions and has beenp reached by ancient and recent thinkers as theonly means for achieving unity in the

______________________________

29 SYM/C.N-6


35

diversity of human cultures and conditions. Relatedto this value has been the search for 'truth' which isthe core of science, of gaining knowledge. Knowledgehas been extolled as a means for overcoming conflictsa rising from ignorance. In one of the Upanishads, theGuru advises his disciple who desires peace of mind,to take to the threefold path of (a) knowledge to endconflict with nature, (b) service to end conflict withother human beings, and (c) renunciation to end theinternal conflict which goes on in the mind when manypleasures are greedily sought from life."

This movement of the human spirit which foundexpression in the past in the insights of sages and seers hasnot run its course. In modern times it is more like streams ofideas and events merging into each other and defining a col-lective aspiration. Despite the cruelties and inhumanities thathave scarred the present century — or perhaps out of its veryagonies — new value affirmations have crystallized. Even iftheir roots go back in the past to a range of inspirations, it isin this century, notably in the present decade, that they arebecoming moral tests of societal action — the value relatingto human rights and the value relating to individual freedom,dignity and integrity. The values order differs from otherorders — economic or political or organizational — in thefact that values and all affirmations thereof arise from andrelate to the human being. This places education at the coreof the values order, and values as the sustaining force in edu-cation. The crisis of values is also in a real sense aneducational crisis brought about by trends which seek toempty the educational process of moral sensibility only toexpose it to the negative values of indifference, cynicism,foul is fair and fair is foul. Social responsibility and socialconsciousness which underlie all lofty values can only be fos-tered through education in its broad meaning.


36

We bestride two "universes" of reality, each with itsown dynamics of growth. One "universe" is the world ofobjects, externality. Science and technology operate in thisexternal world. The truths of the external world arenon-cumulative; a new discovery may wipe the slate clean ofall that went before. Continuity in this kind of "universe" isfortuitous and certainly minimal. The other universe is pivo-ted on the human being, individual or group. Change in theinterior "universe" of the human beingness is cumulative; it isexpressed in culture, in the quest for knowledge, in the stri-ving for heightened moral awareness. These two universes doexist in separation; but there are cross-over points. However,their pace and direction of movement are not the same.Mankind would be the poorer if it did not have one or theother. What should change and what has to continue and whatcontinues even in change are issues of judgement anddiscernment. This is where education has a role to play thatonly education can perform.

Societies in the course of their development come tothose critical junctures where they have to make choices.There are those who do not only wait to be swept into thefuture but wish to be active participants in the choosing andfashioning of the future. For such acts of choice it is indis-pensable to understand what is at stake in the choices.

The societies generally in the Asia-Pacific area are atthe juncture where they have to envision for themselves thepath of choice into the future, which does not have to traver-se the wastelands of rootless modernism or, on the otherhand, sterile and mindless efforts to duplicate the past. Thebest in the living traditions of the Asian cultures and worldheritage, their moral loftiness, universality and the profoundinsights into human nature, may provide the links of conti-nuity in the flux of developmental change.


37

Part Two

PROSPECTS

Chapter Three

ENVISIONING FUTURE EDUCATION

Integrative Education

Education is not a mere reflection of the social and economicforces at work in a society. It is also an important means ofshaping the socio-economic and cultural forces and determin-ing the direction of their growth. The dynamism of theseother forces in turn affects the character of education. Thereis thus a circularity in the interrelation of education and arange of other human and societal factors. The consequencesof education for society are mediated essentially throughindividuals affected by education and become deeper as themediating agencies acquire collective possibilities over time.Thus education is in its profoundest essence an activity of thehuman spirit which can only be realized in a society of thefuture. Implicit in all forms of education except those whichare mechanically ritualistic and repetitive are some integrati-ve assumptions about the human personality, the nature ofknowledge and human society. As education becomesconsciously future-oriented, the question to ask is, what is theoverarching vision that will draw education towards the futu-re, helping to define the goals and to clear the paths towardsthem?

Throughout history and in all countries, thinkers, seers andmen and women of vision have speculated on the educational

39

ideal, the overarching goal, by which human development isto be guided. The Asian cultural and philosophical traditionshave a specially rich heritage of such elevated speculationsand messages. Even though education has more often thannot, and in all countries, developed or developing, failed torealize the ideal in actual practice, the drive towards it hasnow become even more urgent in the contemporary world.

At the Symposium, a speaker30 addressed some ofthese issues specifically:

"The basic thinking behind present developmentmodels and education is that of expansionism-separa -tism. This thinking leads to the following:

- Development means increase;

- Economic development means growth, separa -t e d f rom human, environmental and socialwell-being

- Education is separated from other affairs, runby the Ministry of Education and the schoolsystem separated from community and socialaffairs;

- Materials and mind are separated and deve -lopment and education concentrate on mate -rials;

- Education is separated into subject matters;ethics is a subject, thus separated from othersubjects. "

"The concept of continued growth as developmentis unrealistic. In reality all things are inter-related andhave limits.

______________________________

30 SYM/P.W-9


40

The ancient wisdom perceived the wholeness o fthings, while science tries to understand the pieces separate -ly. The new thinking has to be INTEGRATION. Thus:

• Economic, human, environmental and social well-being are integrated,

• Materials and mind are integrated in development;

• Science and religious values are integrated;

• Education is integral in all developments;

• Ethics education is not a separate subject but inte -gral in all affairs;

• Thus learning is development;

• The purpose of education and development isidentical, i.e., to produce learning persons and alearning society."

In reference to the concepts of "learning society" and"learning person", the same speaker recalled that:

"Lord Buddha preached, over 2500 years ago, theNoble Eightfold Path or Ways of Life, called sikkha orteaming. Life is teaming. The Buddhist monks are cal -led Sangha which means community or collectivity orsociety. Sangha is a learning community. The idealsociety is a learning society."3l

The ideal of an integrated human being and societyhas persisted through the course of history, broadening fromprecedent to precedent. In education a new holism is emer-gent, based on the recognition that man is part of nature; thatto know is to understand the relationship of one part to ano-ther and to the whole; and that the fulfilment of knowledge isin wisdom.______________________________

31 SYM/P.-9

Envisioning future education

41

Unified View of Education

The view of education centred on the human being ismulti-dimensional with grades of significance. Along onedimension is the fundamental need for a balanced andall-round development of the human personality — intellec-tual, aesthetic, emotional, attitudinal and physical. T h i sdimension has been familiarly emphasized in all "progressi-ve" theories but possibly less successfully applied.Development along this dimension interfaces to levels ofontological significance. One is the level at which the humanpowers of the mind are realized — intellection, empathy,capabilities, skills of action. The other is the "internal" uni-verse of man's being where the moral sense and valuing andthe spiritual sense are brought to fruition. The educational en-vironment fosters personal growth, experience of self-disco-very and inner freedom. Intellectual discipline, sensitivity tobeauty and enrichment of personal relationships are highlyvalued. The second dimension of a unified view is defined byman's place in the world in which he lives and has his being— the world of nature and of human society. The levels ofsignificance in this dimension are twofold. At one level,man's relationship is one of knowledge and understanding. Atanother level, it deepens to engage a full range of humancapacities. Thus knowledge and understanding of nature dee-pen to a sense of harmony with nature; an understanding of"global village" transmutes itself to a perception of onenessand interdependence. The study of human society is no lon-ger limited to the study of objects but becomes a commitmentto societal development, social responsibility, culturalparticipation and renewal, and human rights. The educationaland societal goals merge in a vision of the learning societywhich serves the enrichment and fulfillment of all humanbeings in the fullness of their diversities, complexity and pro-fundity.

The process of envisioning education is but to projectinto the future the unified image of human being in his and her


42

potentialities and possibilities. Such educational speculationinto the future can help in realizing that future, provided thatthe change from what is to what needs to be is recognized forwhat it is — a basic qualitative change.

Educational Goals

Educational goals are part of the process of envisio-ning, serving in part as signposts of the development patternsand value trends underlying the present situation's movementtowards the future, and in part anticipation of that future in anact of realizing it. They stem from the present realities and thesocietal consensus and at the same time go beyond them.

The future of education then may be viewed as a seriesof issues of choices to be made and educational goals asembodying the choices so made. Educational goals as deter-mination of choices not only seek to affect or modify the pre-sent but also aim at shaping the future. In this time orienta-tion, the process of developing educational goals is an impor-tant element of policy-making and planning and an equallysignificant means for implementing educational change.

Traditionally the effect of education is seen in an in-dividual, its "product", the educated person While this media-tion continues to be important, it has acquired a more com-plex character in modern times. First there is the effect of"universalised" education reaching out to whole populationswith progressively larger and broader bands of education forlonger and longer duration. The "output" of education now isextensive and weighty enough to affect society with a degreeof immediacy. This range of education is one of the signifi-cant aspects of what has been called the "knowledge-basedsociety". The second development to note is that the institu-tional structure in which education now takes place hasgrown in size and complex" and it is an "educational com-plex" and is in its own right an important source of formative


43

influence on the total political, social, cultural and intellectualenvironment of society.

Educational goals have therefore to be envisioned aschoices relative both to the social purposes and responsibili-ty and to the individual empowerment and development. Inmany societies notably in Asia, there have been potent tradi-tions of dominant societal purpose; also there are traditionsequally strong in which the individual is regarded uniquelyabove the social group. Education for the future needs to bebased on a higher synthesis, a new holism, of the needs of theindividual and the societal responsibilities. In the process ofreflecting on educational goals for a changing society, onemust face the questions: what kind of future society is likelyto be shaped by a particular type of education, and what cha-racteristic of the individual will contribute to a desirablesociety?

There is in A s i a-Pacific countries a growingconsciousness, reflected in their socio-economic develop-ment endeavours, that education has a major role to play inaccomplishing social goals, and alleviating perceivedsocio-economic problems of deprivation, poverty, and margi-nalization, and the social alienation that they breed. Socialequity is thus an important educational goal in order to ensu-re to every person access to education of equal quality. Thisinvolves much more than enrolling the children from disad-vantaged environments; it calls for the type of education andcare that they need by reason of their deprivation. The educa-tional goal relative to a social setting cannot be limited to thatsetting; it must also be seen in the specific context of the indi-vidual.

The educational goal has also to embody the cul-tivation and nurturing of social commitment withoutwhich the goal of social equity in educational actionloses meaning. Just as education is a transforming forcein intellectual development, so it has to be a forcewhich nourishes and strengthens social commitment


44

expressed in caring for other people, specially the weakand-the needy.

In the light of our recurrent theme that educationalgoals represent choices to be made, we may consider by wayof illustration drawn mainly from the context of developingAsia-Pacific what is involved in the questions raised in a pre-ceding paragraph, namely, what kind of education in whatkind of society, and what kind of society in what kind of edu-cation?

Two Contrasting Models

The 'illustrations' are presented for pairs of oppositegoals32 (it being understood that as in all opposites, there arebound to be "grey" areas where the opposites merge on com-mon ground).

Model A. Educational goal of promoting and nurturing themanysidedness of the learner's personality — physical (inclu-ding nutrition and health care), emotional, intellectual, socialand ethical.

This would involve expanding the role and functionsof educational institutions, e.g. schools, and extending educa-tional facilities to include early childhood education.

Model 0. As opposed to the above, the educational goal islimited to the "basics" of reading, writing and numeracy withfour or five years of schooling to gain proficiency.

______________________________

32 In the following paragraphs, the two contrasting models are indicated A, B.C. etc., and opposite as O.


45

This "minimalist" education3 3 seeks educationaleffectiveness in doing less, imposing low expectations on thelearners. The role and functions of the schools are kept downto the minimum and the broader care and nurturing functionsmay be assigned to other bodies.

Model B. Educational goal of providing an excellent educa-tion conceived in a broad and liberal framework which willbe the foundation and the main corpus of formal educationand designed to help the learner to lead a fulfilling life and tomake a living. The general education so conceived will:

i) comprise in appropriate forms of integration, humanisticstudies, scientific and technological knowledge andskills, socio-economic and developmental knowledge,and practical work-experiences;

ii) help the learners to understand and use the different waysof knowing which characterise human comprehension —the scientific, the intuitive, the aesthetic, the ethical;

iii) recognise and use to the fullest in the educating struc-tures the diversity of educational paths which widenchoices for the learners.

______________________________

33 This minimalist educational thinking is specially in evidence in exhortationsto which the developing countries are subjected in international gatherings.Here for example is a quotation from a document submitted to the WorldConference on Education for All (Thailand, 5-9 March 1990) under theimprimatur of one of the sponsoring international organisations of theConference:"Although striving for universal primary education is a rational andw o rthy policy objective for the international community, it is clear thatmany countries will need to wait several more generations beforeachieving universal primary education Of acceptable duration andquality ....Merely achieving universal access to one or two years of pri-m a ry schooling by the turn of the century will constitute a re m a r k a b l eo u t c o m e . " (underlining added)


46

Model O. Educational goal is sharply focused on a selectedrange of subjects which need to be mastered in depth, withrelatively early passage to specialization and consistentemphasis on outcomes. The goal so conceived involves:

i) focus on the intellectual capacity to the exclusion or mar-ginalization of other aspects of learning;

ii) focus on skills and competences that serve to enhance thelearner's competitive edge (e.g. enterprise competenciesor enterprise "passport");

iii) focus on testing for selection and enhancing competiti-veness;

iv) enhancing the education system's contribution to the eco-nomic system and judging of educational worthinessmainly by economic performance criteria.

Model C. The basic principle underlying the orientation ofeducation to the future is that education and any system builtaround it must be centred on the human person. Only whenthis principle is treated as a major reference point for othereducational goals as well as for selecting the means andobjectives in the educational process can education and socie-tal development be a harmonious relationship. The shift toperson-centred education will mean:

i) giving high priority to nurturing and promoting creativi-ty both in the personal and collective development of thelearners;

ii) higher valuation being given to the learners' freedom toexplore and inquire, to their developing awareness of selfand identify, to their questioning, challenging andself-learning habits, to enhancing sensitivity, compas-sion, empathy;

iii) re-directing the institutional systems in education tocreative approaches;


47

iv) strategic importance being given to the learning processas a person-to-person interaction — the teacher and thelearner, the learner and other learners, the learner and theperson of knowledge or wisdom in the community.

Model O. Consequential to "catching-up" cast of thinkingand planning, education is seen almost exclusively in syste-mic terms as a technological model which is tested by econo-mic returns criteria. Educational goals so conceived:

i) emphasize educational activities as instrumental in sha-ping behaviours, involving detailed pre-specification ofdesired behaviours to be imparted by controlled and gui-ded teaching and training techniques;

ii) gives higher priority to machine-based technologies andman-machine interaction as teaching-learning resource,with special emphasis on accessing and absorbing spe-cialized information;

iii) will emphasize business enterprise models for organi-zing education systems, with marked downgrading ofschools in public support;

iv) will result in tendencies towards greater social divisions,notably of "knowiedge-haves" controlling levers of eco-nomic power and others who would have been bypassedby the education system.

Model D. In envisaging education for the future, powerfullyrenewed emphasis will need to be given to social purpose andresponsibility in defining in the contemporary context therole of education. The new role comprises the followingdimensions though, it is not limited to them:


48

i) thoughtful and well-informed awareness of the socialand development problems of contemporary society,such as population growth, environmental damage,poverty, racial and ideological conflicts, deepening dis-parities in qualities of life within the nation and interna-tionally;

ii) enhanced sensitivity to the diversities of peoples and cul-tures and awareness of the enrichment that the diversitiescontribute to mankind's heritage;

iii) active participation in and commitment to social andcommunity programmes.

Model O. The alternative model also stresses social respon-sibility. Marked differences however arise in the followingareas:

i) Social problems are approached via reliance on techno-logical solutions and institutional controls rather thaneducational action;

ii) Awareness of social problems is limited to nation or classdimension, relegating the transnational and internationalcontext to relative neglect.

The role of education for the future depends on thesekinds of choices and on societal consensus. The choices mayturn the future humanward, towards broadening freedom anddevelopment, or they may supersede man by his own crea-tions.


49

Chapter Four

EDUCATING SYSTEM AS OPEN SYSTEM

Changing Education Systems

In common discourse the education system is in ageneral way equated with formal education and schooling.Education of course is not only schooling. There are a varie-ty of non-formal ways of education, some embedded in thecultural milieu and some created institutionally. Then thereare the informal ways of education, centred in the home, thefamily, the community. However, by far the largest segmentof organized education is in the domain of the formal educa-tion system, comprising the schools, colleges, the administra-tive structures, the supporting services, etc. The crucial signi-ficance of the education system lies in the fact thatfuture-oriented educational change indispensably involvescorresponding change and redirection of the education sys-tem. The envisioning of new goals for education must alsoencompass transforming the system. Equally important is therecognition that a dynamic education system — that is, aneducative system — is potentially a creative source of envi-sioning and a powerful instrument for realizing it. Dynamismlacking, it is all too often a limiting factor.

The education systems of the countries in the A s i a-P a c i f i carea vary widely in their structures, forms and scope, the diff e-rences corresponding generally with the levels of economic

50

and industrial development. In the developing countries, theformal education systems as they are to be found today wereoriginally transplanted from the West and grew by almostcompletely supplanting the traditional education systems.The similarities among the education systems of the develo-ping Asia-Pacific, covering such vast geographical area andvarieties of conditions, are nonetheless striking. It is a mootpoint whether the transplant origin gives to the systems anenhanced capacity to bring about change or greater propensi-ty to resist it.

There are four underlying trends which are exposingthese education systems to new challenges:

• a rapidly growing enrolment explosion bringinginto the educational process more and morepeople with greater differences in background,aptitude and interests, and more and more peoplestaying on for longer and longer periods;

• a considerable expansion of the formal educationsystems, mostly uni-linear and replicative;

• tension and dysfuctionalities arising out of mis-match between the enrolment explosion and thepurposes and goals to which the education sys-tems work;

• education systems which tend to be crisis-drivenrather than development-oriented.

In changing education for the future, the restructu-ring and reorientation of the education system is criticallyimportant. The system should have the capacity to nurturecreative institutions which can most effectively do the edu-cating. Much of the crisis in education at present, in deve-loping as much as in developed countries, has its origin ininstitutions which, dominated by the system, are replicatingrather than creating. An important way to lift the leadenweight of the system would be to displace it in many of itsfunctions by networks of creative institutions with capacity

Educating system as open system

51

for collective response to the innovative challenges of futu-re-oriented education.

At present, formal education centred around schools,colleges, etc., is the core of the education system. The boun-daries that define, and separate it from the larger societalenvironment are clearly, and even rigidly, drawn. The evolu-tion towards an "open system" will be marked by a twofolddevelopment. First, there will be increasing variety and diver-sification of the institutional structure at the core and deve-lopment of new types of institutions serving a wider range ofeducational purposes. Indeed, this development is of such cri-tical importance for catalytic change in the core system that itdeserves to be treated as an indicator of the growth potentialof an education system. The new institutional developmentwill encompass educational R&D and innovation diffusioncentres, policy-planning centres, new educational-trainingcomplexes, learning-communication centres, and networks ofnew and old institutions. The other aspect of the diversifica-tion will be the changes in the purposes and structures of theexisting institutions and in the nature of the managementregime.

The new goals of future-oriented education in terms ofthe domain of knowledge, the education-worklinkage, andthe extension of education to all people constituting the "lear-ning force", will call for new orientations in the internalstructures of the education system, notably:

• The duration of formal education will need to beextended. Early childhood education will becomean integral part of the educational service, makingbasic education both a care and a learning stage ofeducation.

• The continuation of education in appropriate andrelevant forms to adults after they have passed outof the educational institutions will be an important


52

element of the system. New institutional formswill be developed for adults who need basic lite-racies, recognising their special learning needs.

• The rigid sequential system of formal educationwith closely regimented progression from onestage to another will give way to open entry andre-entry and free movement between educationand work.

Rigidity is possibly the single most glaring feature ofthe internal structures of the present formal education sys-tems and may well be the prime barrier shutting out themovements of change in education. This is another fertilearea for innovative thought and practice. The innovative stra-tegy may aim at creating new institutions, programmes andmethods in order to bypass the rigidities of the traditional for-mal system specially in the sub-systems which have wideinfluence on the whole system, for example, higher educa-tion.

The education system is a part of a wider societalenvironment in which educating activities take place. Theoldest and the most notable of these educating activities arethe traditional person-to-person networks through which thecultural-moral-aesthetic communications pervade a society. Itis these communication forms which have served to maintainthe vitality of popular art and cultural mores. Despite theinroads of drifting modernity, these traditionally educatingactivities are still operative in the developing world and offerimportant opportunities for interface with the educating for-mal system.

Apart from the traditional educating activities of the kindmentioned above, there are now an increasing range ofprogrammes, generally for training and restraining of adults ando u t-of-school youth, community development activities, agri-cultural extension centres, small-scale industries development,community health centres and the pervasive T. V. and electronic

Educating system as open system

53

media. Most of these institutional developments are outsidethe formal system; some of them such as programmes ofadult education and youth activities are in the periphery of theeducation system rather than at the core. This marginalizedsituation is quite dramatically illustrated in the programmesof adult literacy in the developing countries of Asia.

While the formal education systems will continue toexpand with the impetus of enrolment explosions, the deve-lopment activities outside the education system, that is thegeneral societal environment, are likely to expand even morerapidly. The dividing lines between the formal education sys-tem and the activities and institutions in the general societalenvironment will shade off and make both systems open. Thereciprocal impact of each will increase and become an impor-tant source of innovation. The educational institutions willdevelop new outreaches to their communities to respond totheir development needs and the training. Cultural and otherinstitutions will acquire an educational depth to serve themultifold human aspirations.

Crucial to the development of educative systems asopen systems is the role of human agents in them. The formaleducation system's rigidities are invariably paralleled by theeducational personnel — teachers and others — becomingeducational coteries, access to which is only by certain limi-ted paths of prescribed qualifications. The open educativesystem will be distinguished by the variety and forms ofknowledge, experience, skills, social and cultural insightsthat it attracts through full-time, part-time or voluntaryroutes. The overarching goal of the whole system being focu-sed on the human being and human needs, the educationalpersonnel and not educational technology will be the energi-zing force of the system. A system that has a place for futu-ristic games but no place for a sage or a seer would indeed bea poor thing as a human system.


54

Chapter Five

KNOWLEDGE-BASE OF EDUCATION

Knowledge Environment

If there is anything one can predict with certaintyabout the future, it is that more than now, or ever in the past,the societies will be knowledge-dominant. How much of thatdominance is in the service of human society is in itself afunction of that knowledge — what its nature is conceived tobe and how it is transmitted and used. Education is one of thesources — though not the only one — of the growth of know-ledge; it is now possibly the most important means of trans-mitting knowledge in organized and systematic forms.

This emerging future would call for the command ofknowledge and skills of increasing complexity. The role ofeducation can no longer be limited to transmitting a fixedbody of knowledge. It has to extend to a leading role in defi-ning what knowledge is most worth and the uses thereof inthe context of human strivings and aspirations. For that kindof role, education itself may need to be knowledge-orientedin a more comprehensive manner than at present and developthe skills and capacities to respond to the emerging future.

Who are the beneficiaries and participants in theemerging knowledge-dominated world? This is a crucialquestion.

55

Knowledge is power, says well-established old wisdom. Asknowledge and skills become complex, there is an inherenttendency for power to concentrate in the hands of the newmerchants of knowledge, the specialists, the knowledge wor-kers. This new divide between the people and the knowledgeworkers will be sharper and deeper than any divide created bywealth and economic privilege. It is then an important func-tion of futureoriented education that knowledge should bewidely diffused in the people in order to create understandingof, and a degree of participation in, the use and direction ofthe knowledge as power. This is no less than the creation of aknowledge environment, or ethos, for education, indeed forall human empowering activities. Just as education can nolonger be conceived only as transmission of the past, so it canno longer be limited to a few, by a few, for a few. "Educationfor All" is indispensable for realizing and coping with theknowledge-based society.

As discussed in the previous chapter, there are manyforms and modes of education. However, the formal educa-tion embodying organized and systemized knowledge andskills has come to have a central place in the education com-plex. We are suggesting later in this chapter that non-formaland other modes of education will have an important, possi-bly major, role in the knowledge environment of the future.However, given the central role of the formal education, anychange and transformation of education must be focused inthe main on the formal system.

Qualitative Transformation — Key Priority

The essential, indeed key, concept in changing edu-cation for the future is its qualitative transformation. T h i sapplies in one form or another to all countries and withspecial relevance and immediacy to developingA s i a-Pacific. Much of the educational development in theregion has been (given a variety of constraints), a fol-l o w-t h e-numbers progression tempered with oc-


56

casional reforms of the structures and in a limited wayinstitutional development. A qualitative transformation forfuture-oriented education involves no less than a "doubleleap" in order to move ahead in the quantitative dimensionand simultaneously set in motion the process of qualitativechange. In the final analysis, the impact of qualitative changeof education on general societal development is so muchmore profound precisely because of the numbers who areable to magnify the impact.

The urgent need to activate the process of qualitativechange is underlined by the widening gap between what theformal education does in terms of its goals, its content andprocess and, on the other hand, the new horizons of know-ledge and of life that are defining the prospects of the presentas well as of the future. While it would be an over-simplifi-cation to suggest that educational change can be determinedin a precise way so as to "fit" education at any moment to theneeds of a future society, there are discernible trends andgrowth points in the light of which some salient features ofdesirable changes in education can be posited, notably whatcomprises the concept of qualitative transformation in parti-cular societies.

Qualitative change in education is a multi-facetedphenomenon. One key aspect is the breadth of learningencompassed, the need of the learners for exposure not onlyto a broader range of disciplines but to new generative syn-thesis and to new areas of inquiry. The approach is not one ofsuperficial "contact", but in some depth in terms of theinsights that are acquired. Breadth and depth — these make itpossible to draw on the various disciplines and cross-discipli-nary and interdisciplinary approaches for coherent and effec-tive learning and to lay the foundations of capabilities fornew learning so essential in the work places as well as theexpanding knowledge environment of the future.

Knowledge-base of education

57

Broad-based Learning

In broad-based learning the emphasis shifts from apurely cognitive to an all-round intellectual, physical, emo-tional, social and moral development of the learners. In theframework of the common educational structure, the prin-ciple of broad-based learning will translate at the first level ofeducation as learning for caring, for personal physical andhealth development, and for acquisition of basic learningskills by all children.34 These basic skills, and cultivation ofenquiring, questioning, exploring attitudes lay the ground-work for further learning, independent learning and learningto learn.

Advocacies of "back to basics" and "basic education"limited to just a few essential skills of reading, writing andnumeracy have been targeting the developing countries sostridently that they have become a major source of educatio-nal misinformation and distortion. This "minimalist" educa-tion approach which at the basic level of education relegateslearners to a regimented diet asserts itself at the post-basiclevels in limiting the range of "necessary" knowledge toensure depth. These narrow approaches have tended to makelearning sterile without raising the educational performancelevels to which they were addressed.

At the post-basic stage, broad-based learning ismaintained in appropriate forms and specialisationcomes later rather than prematurely. At the post-b a s i cstages the organisation of broad-based learning is gui-ded by the principle that the streams of knowing anddevelopment continue together and are not to be______________________________

34 World Declaration OD Education for All adopted by World Conference onEducation for All (1990, Jomtien, Thailand) showed the way to a broaderapproach to basic education. It declared: "Learning does not take place in isolation. Societies therefore, mustensure that all learners receive the nutrition, health care, the generalphysical and emotional support they need in order to participate acti-vely In and benefit from their education."


58

prematurely separated; namely, the way of knowing of huma-nities and creative expression is not separated from the wayof knowing of the scientific-technological; and these againare not separated from the way of knowing and action embo-died in social-economic knowledge. Interwoven in thesedomains of knowledge and applications are values and perso-nal development and commitment.

While the developments in science and related disci-plines dramatically represent the knowledge-explosion, to theextent at times of overshadowing other areas of knowledge,the human sciences and language have the potential of a veryhigh order for changing and redirecting education. The edu-cational roots run deep in the human consciousness, inclu-ding and extending beyond the cognitive to the intuitive andthe creative. Language is the principal means of creativeexpression for a child as much as for an adult. The ability tocommunicate effectively orally and in writing will continueto distinguish an educated person and just no amount of tech-nology by itself is likely to redeem a person's illiteracy.35Language is also the principal communicating link among thedifferent disciplines, including the scientific. Over and above,language as literature embodies the human visions of great-ness. The study of foreign languages will be an importantsource of curricular enrichment. These influences, combinedwith others which have their sources in the broadening hori-zons of the interdependent world, should make the area ofhumanities and social sciences the most fertile ground forcurricular change in the next decades.

______________________________

35 The Beijing Round Table made the amazing claim that "because of advancesin educational technology, it is now possible to be a lifelong learner evenif one is illiterate." (Final Report November-December 1989)


59

World Context in Education

The mental horizons of formal education functionscontrast strangely with those which the emerging One Worldis unfolding. It is doubtful if the amount of knowledge of theoutside world purveyed by the education system in any coun-try, developed or developing, is appreciably more than whatwas known, say, at the time of Galileo.

It is fairly certain that if the next generations do notknow and understand the world much better than the presentgeneration and its leaders and opinion-makers, their survivalchances will be in grave jeopardy. The locus of humanco-operation for mutual enrichment as well as survival ismoving from the national to the world level.

The responsive educational change has to be alongtwo lines. First, the world context should receive greateremphasis in all school subjects from the very beginning, suchas in geography, or economics/demography or political scien-ce. A foreign language taught for adequate competence inspeaking, reading and writing should be a required subject. Atthe post-secondary level, universities and other higher educa-tion institutions should provide competent facilities for lear-ning/teaching foreign languages so that there may be adequa-te cadres with proficiency in different foreign languages.

The other important line of educational action is tointroduce the study of world history and cultures at thesecondary level This is not presented as a chronicle of datesand events, but rather in terms of the great movements ofhuman affairs. For example, one possible approach is topresent the history around three themes: cultures and civi-lisations in different periods and different geographicalareas; the emergence of great ideas and values which haveshaped or changed mankind's course; and the diff e r e n texpressions of human spirit in art and aesthetics. T h e


60

basic principle is that all human achievements are a commonheritage of mankind to be shared and participated in by eachgeneration.

A study of world history introduces the young peopleto the variety and plurality of human achievements at the dif-ferent levels of technical skills and social organisation. Thepurpose of such study is to develop the insights and percep-tions of empathy — the kinds of insights that come into playwhen we see a human face in compassion, an artistic creation,or a landscape of surpassing beauty. It helps to show theinter-relationships in human organisation and problem sol-ving. Most important, the students are exposed to the daw-ning and progress of the great moral ideas which have so pro-foundly changed the world. This is also valid in the aestheticdomain. Other styles, expressions and rhythms open newdoors of perception. They sensitize one to one's own art formsand help to respond with deeper appreciation. The mindswhich have opened to the diversities and pluralism of diffe-rent peoples, their ways of life, their human and spiritualaspirations will view with greater and deeper understandingthe diversities in their own social and cultural situations.

The cultural traditions of Asia have contributed sorichly and magnificently to the common world heritage.Perhaps it is ironic to reflect that few of the modern educationsystems in Asian countries provide to the young people anybridges of knowledge and understanding to the commonAsian heritage.

Science and Technology Education

The societies of the twenty-first century will,quite clearly, continue to be shaped by science andtechnology; quite as importantly, science and techno-logy are indispensable in helping the societies fromwhere they are now to where they aspire to be in thenext century. Questions about what kind of science and


61

technology and for whom, are central to a qualitativetransformation of education.

Science education, in one form or another, has now arecognized place in school education in Asia-Pacific coun-tries. There are, however, a variety of shortfalls in developingAsia which should compel a major reorienting effort in thisarea. First, much of science education in the schools is desi-gned as a preparation for the study of science at the higher,specialist levels. It is thus narrowly based, both in terms ofthe range of learners it serves and of the kind of the learningexperience of science it offers. Secondly, science educationprogrammes split off prematurely the science disciplines intospecialized groups. Thus the biological sciences are split offfrom the physical sciences and both from environmentalscience. Thirdly, the links of science and technology in scien-ce education programmes are too tenuous and weak.

Science and technology education has to bebroad-based and accessible to all students at all stages in anappropriate form. It has also to be a significant element inadult and continuing education.

L i f e-sciences and natural sciences need to be presen-ted in a common framework which should also include thenew growth points in biology, in cybernetics and computerscience and in organic compounds. The most important ofthe redirections is the integration of technology and science.The integration of theoretical knowledge and its applicationwith the associated skills is at the heart of a qualitative chan-ge of science education at the schooling stages. This integra-ted body of knowledge including computer science applica-tions and associated skills should make it possible for allpupils to gain an understanding of the nature of technologyand prepare them to use science and technological skills inthe problems of daily life as much as in further learning orentry into the world of work. Technology is not just


62

tools; it is about how one works and lives and perceives theworld. The aim therefore is not narrowly focused on any spe-cific skills, but on nourishing insights and styles of work onwhich later learning or occupational training can build.Appreciation is also developed of the fact that the sources ofnew- knowledge lie in application as well as in theory.

The history of the growth of science and technologyexemplifies the human pursuit of great ideas in which diffe-rent societies have participated. Scientists and inventorsrepresent an aspect of creativity in their work, which bearsdirectly on the objectives and methods of science-technologyeducation as well as of general education.

Another area of integration is the linking ofscience-technology and environmental science which shouldnourish in the young people a caring understanding of theinterdependence of all living things and of the delicatelife-sustaining balances which hold the living and the inorga-nic together.

Science and technology education is not only aboutbits or systems of knowledge. It is how that knowledge is gar-nered and tested and made the subject of educational aware-ness. The contents and the process are treated as a continuum.A speaker36 at the Symposium made the point in the follo-wing words:

"Science education must shift from the memori -sing of science contents to the scientific process. Thep rocess of observation, re c o rding the observ a t i o n ,analysis, synthesis, conceptualisation, hypothesisformulation, inquiring, critical searching and usingof information, acquiring new knowledge and appli -cation of knowledge must be used for intellectualdevelopment. Education and re s e a rch are continuousp rocesses of learning Research behaviour and

______________________________

36 SYM/P.W-9


63

capability must be established at every level of educa -tion. Education associated with research will help thelearners and the system to be in contact with realitieswhich change with places and times. The educationsystem today, in spite of its widespread infrastructure,almost does not generate knowledge, for the systememphasises only transmitting subject matter. If thescientific process is introduced into education andresearch is incorporated into learning and learning isapplied to the real environment around the educationsystem, knowledge will be generated all over forappropriate uses."

Essential in the educational method of science andtechnology is sharpening and enhancing the ability to identi-fy and define a problem37 and use knowledge and skillseffectively towards a solution. The fostering of inquiring,questioning and critical attitudes is the essential outcome ofthe educational process across all learning domains and nota-bly so in science-technology education. The learners' role inthese processes is an active one and is critically important.Problem-identification and problemsolving would be a poortransaction if the problem is handed out to the learner ratherthan being identified by him or her.

Economic, Social and Development Domains

Another knowledge domain important for qualitative chan-ge in education comprises the "development-oriented"38 disci-plines, notably economic-social. Considering the influence whichthe economic activities command even in the least complex______________________________

37 Einstein wrote of problem formulation in science:"The for nulation of a problem is often more essential than its solu-tion, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimentalskill To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old questionsfrom a new angle, requires imagination, and marks real advance Inscience."

38 The reference to "development-oriented" covers in a general way the processof development planning through which the national economies are soughtto be transformed.


64

developing countries and on the social and personal environ-ment, it is surprising, to put it mildly, that economic studiesat the schooling stage are either not provided at all or areweakly developed. In economic studies, as in science-techno-logy, theoretical knowledge needs to be combined in appro-priate ways with the applied forms and with skills of enter-prise management. The study of population dynamics and itsconsequences nationally and internationally, and of naturalresources and their use are closely linked to theeconomic-social area.

Issues of linking education and work also need to beconsidered in the context of development-oriented disci-plines. In all the foregoing reflections on educational goals, aconstant theme has centred on the integration of knowledgeas theory and knowledge as practice, of understanding andskills. Practical and technological work should lead to deve-lopment of generic skills which are useful and indispensableat the work places in self-generated or self-employment jobsand which are equally essential as the foundation for morespecific occupational training. Such generic skills wouldinclude work discipline, planning, quality awareness, andco-operation with others. It is envisaged that the general edu-cation schools and the vocational and technical schools willinterface closely. The education for the work place in thecoming decade will need to be broadly based in terms of therange of abilities that a learner can have, not only cognitivebut also manual, technological, inter-personal. As the generalschools draw more on work experience as a learning resour-ce and the vocational training schools develop a broader aca-demic basis, the distinction between the two types will beco-me less sharp and not inconceivably, vocational/technicalschools may become the common schools of the next centu-ry.

An important avenue for a two-way flow of experiencebetween education and work is provided by arrangements for thestudents' participation in work-experience programmes, com-


65

munity services, social development programmes. Somecountries have introduced such programmes and they arebound to grow and diversify in the coming decades.

One of the most significant developments in the nextfew decades will arise in the area of adult education. In thedeveloping countries, as the learning force grows and thework-place environment receives the impact of rapid econo-mic, social and cultural changes, the demand for re-educationand continuing education for the adults will grow sharply.The increasing importance of adult education and continuingeducation will bring into schools and higher education insti-tutions new and "hands-on" work experiences which can pro-foundly influence the learning environment of educationalinstitutions.

Information Technologies for Education

References to continuing education or recurrenteducation call to mind one of the most successful innovationsin education, namely, distance teaching (or as some wouldprefer, distance learning), and associate it with the applicationof educational technology.

Educational/instructional technology (or "informa-tics" for some) has attracted reactions which range fromd a w n-o f-a n e w-day claims to outright rejection. In the 1970sextravagant claims were made about the performance of pro-grammed instruction, computer-assisted teaching machinesand the use of the electronic devices in the classrooms. T h e ywere for a time promoted as specially relevant to the needsof the developing countries to make up for the lack of quali-fied teachers. It was not long before the claims and expecta-tions had to be muted in face of disappointing results. Nowwith the new generation of technological developments ininformation and micro-technologies and the far-r e a c h i n gimpact they have created on every aspect of modern life, onecannot fail to notice in relation to education a


66

fresh re-kindling of the high expectations for re-fashioningeducation through technology and at the other end, an attitu-de of even greater caution.

Those who hitch their educational vision to hightechnology do so partly because of a belief that what has"worked" with such visible effectiveness in industry, busi-ness, entertainment and weapons systems should also work ineducation to change it. There is also a more general percep-tion that what is based on human interaction is of a lesserorder than what comes of machine — machine or machine —man interaction. The new technology, as its precedent of1960s-1970s, is an outgrowth of the technology of informa-tion processing, and has not emerged from any developmentsor knowledge about how people learn and what human lear-ning is all about.

Thus the new technology is hailed as a 'learning ratherthan a teaching technology'; in its computer form, it willreplace f the printed book and bring more information andmore flexibility in use; as television, it will create a wholenew world of visual pedagogy in which what matters is notsubject matter but 'the skill, professionalism and persuasivepower of the presentation'39; the technology will individuali-se learning pace and process and so forth.

The discussion in the Beijing Symposium series40 isrevealing of the two reactions to educational technology. TheRound Table expressed the following view (part of it wasquoted earlier):

"Educational technology is providing new opport u n i t i e sfor high quality interactive learner-driven learning. We can

______________________________

39 Even such a wise thinker as Peter F. Drucker is swept off his feet by the tech-nological vision when he declares, "There are more hours of pedagogyin one thirty-second commercial than most teachers can pack into amonth of teaching."

40 International Symposium and Round Table, (Final Report,November-December 1989 UNESCO)


67

expect this to increase dramatically in the 1990s.Indeed, because of advances in educational technolo -gy, it is now possible to be a lifelong learner even ifone is illiterate."

The Symposium (Beijing), ignoring theoreticalconsiderations, took a pragmatic line on grounds of the deve-loping countries' constraints. It said4l:

"New developments in information technology,including computer-aided learning, interactive video,video and television, offer important opportunities toimprove the quality of learning for many students.Developments in this area, however, require a largeinvestment of effort and finance. In many developingcountries the reality is that only a few elite schoolswould have such technology, thus aggravating theequity problem in developing countries."

In a similar vein of caution inspired by cost-conscious-ness (and not any inherently educational principle) the WorldConference on Education for All offered the following42:

"The quality and delivery of basic education can beenhanced through the judicious use of instructionaltechnologies .... The definition of a suitable technolo -gy varies by societal characteristics and will changerapidly over time as new technologies (educationalradio and television, computers, and variousa u d i o-visual instructional devices) become lessexpensive and more adaptable to a range of environ -ments."

Much of the uncertainty surrounding educational tech-nologies arises from a special kind of "demonstration effect". It______________________________

41 "Learning to Care: Education for the Twenty-First Century. (Report of theSymposium, Beijing, November-December 1989. UNESCO)

42 World Conference on Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning Needs(Final Report, Framework forAction, Jomtien, Thailand, March 1990)


68

is all too clear that information and micro-technologies have,now and in the future, an increasing impact on variousaspects of contemporary life. Their influence is spreading outglobally faster than any other influence. By a "demonstrationeffect" it is assumed that these technologies will breed theireducational variants. The implications for education need tobe understood in terms of the various aspects of these tech-nologies rather than assuming a single entity as educationaltechnology.

Clearly information and micro-technologies representimportant developments in the scientific domain and shouldbe a part of science-technology education of all students.Computing skills are rapidly becoming as necessary as otheruseful skills. Also, as a part of science-technological educa-tion, understanding should be promoted of the enormouspotential of these new technologies and how they are opera-ted. The educational institutions will also be engaged in trai-ning people for the increasing range of enterprises in whichcomputer-based technologies, etc. are used in the developingcountries. The use of these technologies in enterprise mana-gement is already well under way in developing Asia and isbound to increase. There is some scope and need for the useof suitable information technologies in the overall manage-ment of the education systems. These are what the technolo-gies can do best.

The basic question, so far as education is concerned, iswhether these new technologies are on the way to changingfundamentally, or displacing, our models of knowledge, lear-ning and teaching.

These technologies are, as their source name indi-cates, basically concerned with information. Their power,which is estimated to be doubling every two years, iscomputing power and it is in the application and varia-tion of the computing power that lie implicitly the parti-cular models of learning and knowledge and teachingthat the technologies purvey. Information is not


69

knowledge, far less is it wisdom. The "technological model"of learning is one of severely limited range, scope and depthbut great power. Its aim is effectiveness and not the divergentqualities of thought such as creativity, valuing, discernment.Learning as interaction of person-t o-person andperson-to-ideas is replaced by learning as the combination ofman and machine.

The distortions of the "technological model" arisefrom its tendency to downgrade the educational process to itsspecific limitations. Thus education will become a matter ofachieving measurable outcomes by paced and programmedsteps. The teacher need no longer be a role model, a motiva-tor, for the learner, a partner in a dialogue. He becomes at besta monitor, otherwise a part of the technology.

Human learning that is characterized by enquiry, ques-tioning, diverging, synthesizing and by timeless questions isnot "computer-friendly". Information technologies are intheir operation so reliable because they are so utterly predic-table. There is no flagging of patience and no variation. Butan apple falling? They can tell you about the million applesfalling. But there will be no flash of inspiration to tie in thatsingle falling apple to the galaxy and the planets. They cangive answers but cannot form the questions. What Plato saidof another technology of his day applies with even greaterappropriateness to our educational technologies:

"You might think they spoke as though they madesense, but if you ask them anything about what theyare saying, if you wish an explanation, they go on tel -ling you the same thing, over and over forever."(Phaedrus)

Can anything other than the human mind ask the ques-tion, why is there something rather than nothing? The abilityto form a question is what learning and knowledge and tea-ching are about. And so far it is the humans who do it best.


70

Chapter Six

KNOWING-LEARNING-TEACHING:THE PROCESS

The central theme of the arguments in the precedingsections is the need for a unified holistic view of future-orien-ted education. One aspect of the unified view encompassesthe content or what is taught, the process of how the contentbecomes a learning experience and the abilities, skills andinsights which are formed and nourished by the whole pro-cess. It is important to recognize that when a significant chan-ge occurs in any one element in education, it affects thewhole educational environment including the teaching-lear-ning process, institutional organizations and the basic frame-work of beliefs and value assumptions. Many a path of edu-cational reform has ended as a blind alley because of exclusi-ve concentration on any one aspect to the neglect of the com-plex whole of relationships.

What ultimate end does this complex of processesserve? Who is it designed to benefit? By what aims is it to bejudged?

Learner-driven Learning

At the heart of the learning complex is the individual, thel e a r n e r, in his and her unique individuality. In the transmitting ofknowledge and its learning, the teaching of a subject or skill and

71

its acquisition — the individual learner is both the subject andend purpose of the process. Whether the learner is at thecentre or at the periphery is the defining characteristic thatdistinguishes one educating system from another. It alsodetermines the ethos and values of the educating system as awhole and its constituent elements, whether they are scaled tohuman purposes and needs or are dehumanizing by their size,work methods and anonymous character. The recognition ofthe learner as an active, indeed driving, force in the knowled-ge-learning process and the self-realization of his/her rangeof potentialities in that process is a crucial fulcrum for reo-rienting education.

Learning and Creativity

Another cardinal goal of the knowledge-l e a r n i n gprocesses as well as of the educating system is that of deve-loping creativity. This goal is not only closely linked to butdirectly flows from the shift to thel e a r n e r-c e n t r e d / l e a r n e r-driven education processes.Creativity is the potential that every learner carries withinhimself/herself, waiting to find expression. PsychologistJerome Bruner's dictum that "any subject can be taught toanybody at any age in some form that is honest" applies witheven greater force to the goal of creativity. It subsists throughdifferent stages of growth of the learner's personality, fromchildhood on to adolescence and maturity. It finds expressionthrough different powers of human personality, ranging frominstinctual curiosity and self-expression of childhood, toself-awareness, self-esteem, innovation, and the qualities ofheightened perception and sensibility43. The pursuit of crea-tivity in teaching and learning helps to bring theknowing-learning process to its rightful base, that is,

43 An ancient Indian text says:"where there is joy, there is creation;Where there is no joy, there is no creation"

(CHANDYOG UPANISHAD)


72

within the human being. Learning is what the learner doesand cannot be done any other way.

Creative-Methods

Given the "matrix" of learner-at-centre and creativi-ty-as-goal, certain approaches and methods need to be high-lighted.

• The learners should be active participants in theknowing-learning-teaching process. The degree towhich the student is so engaged and involved andcommitted is the real test of teaching and of thelearning environment. Teaching that is only trans-mission of fixed body of knowledge (whether bya teacher or by high-tech devices) is sterile andmakes the students passive learners by rote. Thatis what the tests, designed and controlled remote-ly, measure. Active and participatory learning-tea-ching shows itself in enhanced ability to think andact independently and creatively. The develop-ment of curiosity and of the questioning attitudes,and of a will and capacity to choose an action andmake a commitment, are important elements ofparticipatory education. It is relatively easy (andof course important) to introduce new technolo-gies and even easier to bring about literacy or"reading comprehension". It is much more diffi-cult, yet much more important, to bring about thechanges in attitudes and habits of mind, for tobring them about involves reducing the gap inattitudes between the teacher and the learner.

• The knowing-learning process should bepresented in contexts in which there isconstant interplay of thought and action,theory and application. Knowledge is d o i n g

Knowing-learning-teaching: the process

73

no less than it is apprehension of abstract ideas. Itis mind transformed to tasks. The interweaving oftheory and application promotes the essential abi-lity to adapt knowledge to different situations andto evolve or adopt creative approaches to problemsolving.

• Knowledge, as it is presented in the educationsystems, is highly fragmented into ever smallersegments of disciplines. This tendency has beenreinforced by sterile tests and measurements ofthe evaluation procedures. The methods of tea-ching which treat knowing-learning as an integra-ted process constantly relate the particular to thegeneral and the general to a specific expression,and build interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinarylinks. The linkage is equally important with theother domains of knowledge, notably values, andreal life-problems at all levels from local to glo-bal.

• The ways of knowing are various. The limiting ofeducation action to one style only, for exampleratiocinative, has tended to impoverish the kno-wing-learning process. The methods should bringinto play, in appropriate forms, other ways ofknowing such as the intellectual, the intuitive, theempathetic the practical, and the transcendental.The sources of knowing-learning are also variousand the methods should constantly expose the stu-dents to sources other than the formally organizedinstitutions; namely, learning from fellow lear-ners, from the community, from work sites andimportantly from active engagement in socialaction.

• The central principle governing the methods andmodels of teaching is that different learners learnd i fferent domains of knowledge diff e r e n t l y. How to


74

"individualize" the knowing-learning process sothat the individual's potential is developed fully, isat the heart of the educational challenge. The "fac-tory model" of school organization, the pressureof graded testing, the homogenization imposed bythe curriculum procedures based on behavioural-ly defined outcomes — all these factors andothers have tended to subvert the central principleof individualized learning. Person-to-person lear-ning, learning in small groups, small schoolsdown-sized to human learning needs rather thanlarge, monumental ones designed for "containing"pupils — measures such as these are needed tore-claim the commons of human learning. This isa critical area for innovation and creative educa-tional initiatives.

The Teacher

The teacher's role is crucial in the knowing-learning-teaching process and specially in reorienting education. Timeand again the success of educational reforms has been foundto be decisively dependent on the "will-to-change" as muchas the quality of the teachers. No education system can risetoo far beyond the level of the teachers in it. Educational ini-tiative which has its roots in the commitment of the teachingforce has not only prospect of success but also of constancy.Such change, like any human-based change, may appear to beslow, but its rate of obsolescence is also very low, comparedto machine-based changes. The successful technologies havebeen precisely those (e.g. distance education) which haveused the skills and styles of best teachers.

In the learner-centred knowing-learning process, the tea-cher is not only a transmitter of discrete segments of knowled-ge. The teacher helps constantly to connect to the larg e r


75

framework. He or she is also the learners' guide, counsellor,role model. The teacher is thus not a narrow specialist but aknowledge-worker, a lifelong learner. In the perfection of theteaching process, the teacher and the learner are partners,enquiring and exploring together. This is the relationshipwhich in some of the Asian traditions is symbolized by theword guru. Aristotle referred to it as "a moral type of friend-ship" and St. Thomas Aquinas called this kind of teaching "anact of love and mercy".

Towards the Learning Society

In the ultimate analysis, the ideas centred on lifelonglearning form the core of future-oriented education. Whatdistinguishes these ideas in the contemporary discourse fromtheir earlier exposition is the belief that lifelong learning isnot only for the exceptional individuals; it pertains to all lear-ners and to the society as a whole. It is basic to the evolutionof new structures and diversified paths for learning.

Learning to learn, continuing to learn and lifelonglearning are all linked. Basic to the process is learning tolearn which sums up the educational purpose and goal of lear-ning and teaching, from the very first stages on. It is in lear-ning, in the handling of knowledge and application, that thedesire to learn is activated and from which the capacity tolearn independently is constructed. The important point tomake is that the motivation and the ability for continuinglearning are realized in the style and habit of learning that arenourished in the learner.

As human capacities begin to dominate the deve-lopment process, training at work, or change of work orcreating new work will be very widespread. Its extent andrange will be an important indicator of a society's deve-lopment. Furthermore, education and training will losethe sharp distinction separating the two; training


76

centres will also be education centres, and all educational ac-tivities will also be training activities.

Similarly the artificial distinction between formaleducation and non-formal education will cease to have theundertones of two separate and different educational worlds.On the human landscape, formal and non-formal education,home and community education, and all other expressions ofthe educational quest are like the waterways of a mightyriver, flowing into and out of, receiving and giving. In thewaterways are some deep channels which harbour livingorganisms and maintain the intricate balance between themighty river and its waterways. In all societies, and the Asiansocieties are specially blessed in this regard, there are chan-nels of lifelong education embedded deep in the cultures ofthe societies. These deep-seated channels of lifelong andlife-sustaining education can be bypassed only at great loss.

With the increasing role of knowledge-related skills,the new as well as the existing learning resources in societyare coming innovatively into play. Knowledge networks areemerging as the new educational structures. Networks aremechanisms of co-operation for sharing information andexpertise, exchanging and even creating new skills andknowledge. Educational institutions not only network fortheir mutual benefit, but also for providing services to thecommunity or other institutions for back-up support.

Equally important are networks of persons comingtogether around common interests — networks of fellowworkers, of knowledge personnel, of learning groups. Grouplearning, that is, the ability to learn as a group, will be one ofthe important support systems of the emerging educationalstructures.


77

The perfection of learning is sharing; the more onelearns, the greater the desire to share. In the Asian culturaltraditions, the sharing of knowledge, wisdom, learning is theprime responsibility of the elder man, of anyone who hasreceived the gift of knowledge, of anyone who has masteredan art or a skill, of the wise man, of the sage. Learning tolearn should surely prepare for learning to share.


78

Chapter Seven

VALUES: THE CENTRE THAT HOLDS

In Chapter Two we discussed the general crisis inhuman values. That crisis reflects also a crisis in education.

There is a growing gap between the world that the eco-nomic and technological forces are creating, and the realm ofvalues. Increasingly the objectives of "eff e c t i v e n e s s " ,"efficiency", "getting the results" are looked upon as theirown justification for pursuing them. Increasingly, privatebenefits carry much greater weight than public good. There isincreasingly a "secession" of the wealthy from the collectiveresponsibility of society and a deepening failure of unders-tanding between the rich and the poor.

Education systems all over present themselves asconfused, even in disorder, in responding to the learners invalues development. Education is not and cannot be valuefree. Increasingly it is treated as if it is. The perception of afuture education is implicitly a view of the moral order ofthe future. Values are the doors of perception through whichwe look at the world and ourselves and interpret the expe-rience and make it intelligible to ourselves. To shut thesedoors on the learners on grounds of "detached view" or"moral neutrality" or "irrelevance of values in the prepara-tion for earning a living" is arguing for education withoutpurpose. Education that is infused with a constant sense

79

of values should mean deeper moral sensibility and greaterhuman understanding so that the learners, as they have moreeducation, can more clearly see the barriers that divide andcan more clearly hear the cries of suffering and loneliness.

There have been in the educational discourse broadlythree different approaches to incorporating the dimension ofvalues in educational programmes. One approach is based ona construct of an "ideal" or "model" person exemplifying thedesirable habits and attributes (and generally presented in na-tional or ideological terms). The desirable traits are to be cul-tivated in the schools. This approach was at one time, not toolong ago, the hallmark of several education systems. It giveslittle to a sense of freedom in personal development and isfound to be associated, all too facilely, with particular typesof political systems.

Another approach is based on the identification ofvalues with the desirable abilities and skills which the ins-tructional processes should aim to develop. Thus critical thin-king, reasoning and problem solving abilities, learning to beenterprising, abilities to work co-operatively, and to work inan organization, initiative, etc. (the list can be expanded inde-finitely) are abilities through which values are realised. Thereis no automatic transfer of the abilities and skills garnered ina subject-area to another subject area or to the learner's deve-lopment of insights. Much as the abilities and skills contribu-te to the formation of values, there is more to values thanskills and abilities.

There is yet another approach, which is based on twobasic premises. First, values are more than abilities andskills, as knowing what to do is different from know-h o w.To what ends and in what way abilities and skills are exer-cised, defines the realm of values. Values call for a com-mitment of the whole personality and are for that reasonqualities intrinsic to what we do and how we do it. In edu-cation, values are thus seen as a part of the processes


80

of knowing and learning, and at the same time as somethingto be addressed directly in their own terms. Secondly, thereare levels of significance in the realm of values, and these arereflected in the steps in which the learners are exposed tothem. In the light of this, one may think of values in terms of(i) personal context; (ii) social context; for example:

Personal: Integrity; caring and compassion; authenticity;sensitivity to human individuality and to life inall its forms; sensitivity to human rights;self-understanding; self-restraint;

Social: Sense of responsibility; understanding and tole-rance of difference and pluralism; co-operative;concern for public good; non-exploitive.

In terms of the levels of significance, the discernmentof values must ultimately rise to a moral vision which wouldenfold knowledge, beauty, truth, virtue, harmony, love, justi-ce, freedom.44

The adolescent years are crucial in forming in theyoung minds the impressions and images of values, positive-ly or negatively. A high proportion of these young years arenow spent in school, and clearly the schools have a responsi-bility and should have a commitment.

Education in values begins at home and is shapedby the parental values. The school's responsibility is apartnership with the home but progressively in linewith the development of the child, the school's partici-pation takes on a more divergent form. In the earlyyears, the "values" are centred on formation of habits______________________________

44 The International Round Table addressed many aspects of caring as a key-note value for future education.Learning to Care: Education for the Twenty-first Century: Report of theRound Table (Beijing November-December 1989, UNESCO)

Values: the centre that holds

81

and manners and the basics, as it were, of co-operation, self-restraint, consideration of others, etc. With the growing self-awareness of the child, the "basic code" begins to undergo aprocess of internalizing. In the next phase of development,the notions of "right" and "wrong" with reference to one'sown actions or other people's actions begin to emerge.Correspondingly, the reasons and explanations of the basiccode are sought more consciously. These two phases comple-te an important cycle in the values education in terms of thesocially and culturally-directed norms of personal behaviour.

The next stage, though it builds on the earlier one, isqualitatively different. The stage is marked by a high degreeof awareness in the young person and of doubts, and questio-nings, of a search, possibly unaware of itself, of meaning andpurpose. It is the stage of a growing sense of personal auto-nomy. This is the stage at which education with a commit-ment to values has to participate in the young persons deve-lopment, directing the questionings to the personal relationsand motives and to social responsibilities. The educationalcommitment is not directed to "implanting" any set of values.Its main purpose is to develop in the young minds a moralsensibility and discernment, and to help them to deepen theirinsights so that they may develop for themselves a body ofconvictions and guiding beliefs. Philosopher Kant said thatthe proof of an ultimate reality is the "starry heavens aboveand the moral sense within". That "sense within" is what thevalues education is about.

To that end the young people should be exposed to thegreat ideas and great expression of values which have liftedhumanity to the high ranges of the spirit — ideas of humandignity and freedom, of individuality and social responsibili-ty, of kindness and compassion.

The "teaching" of moral values in the context of greatideas will not be "instructional"; it can only be dialogic, the


82

conversation between the teacher and the taught and theideas. Only by dialogic method can the ideas be internalizedand made as their own by the young learners, and by thatmeans to make their own lives less unintelligible and moremeaningful. This is the learning that "makes the soul of thelearner capable of defending itself".

The contemporary world is face to face with a risingtide of dehumanizing forces. This affects the young with par-ticular severity, creating a deepening sense of atrophy, of avoid. The intellectual accomplishments and the mastery ofskills seem to lose their lustre. Education which narrowlyaddresses only the material has much to answer for this ero-sive tendency. The primal aim of education as "all-rounddevelopment" so narrow-mindedly downgraded by the "plan-ners" and their kind has to be revisioned if education is toplay its full role in the complex world of tomorrow.

Values: the centre that holds

83

Chapter Eight

IMPLICATIONSFOR PLANNING OF EDUCATION

Looking ahead to surmise the education for a new cen-tury has important implications for the development of edu-cation from its present base. The surmising should not belimited to a one-time speculative exercise to mark the closingdecade of a century. Viewing education in the perspectives ofthe future needs to be thought of as an essential dimension ofeducational policy making and educational planning; indeedas a new direction for educational planning.

While in almost all societal activities which aim tomeet human needs and expectations, the future is to somedegree embedded in the present, this is pre-eminently so ineducation, whatever the level or form of its development. Thepresent education will shape to an important degree the totallearning environment of a future. But quite as importantly,that future is also shaping the present by the image that thepresent education has of it, implicitly or otherwise. It is the-refore some what puzzling that educational planning in itspresent forms and methodologies has tended to shorten itstime-perspectives and breadth of focus. This has in turn ten-ded to affect educational policy making.

Educational planning, taking a variety of forms, has beenan influential force in the developing countries of Asia since the

84

1950s45. There is now available a considerable body of les-sons of experience which points up the contribution of edu-cational planning to the consolidation of the education sys-tems as well as its constraints and limitations.

Much of educational planning has taken little accountof "educational goals", and tended to treat educational goalssetting as inoperable in terms of the planning techniques. Theplanning is based on projecting the present to the futuretime-frame and tends to be more pre-occupied with inade-quacies and shortfalls of the past rather than exploring theneeds of the future. Increasingly educational planning is seenas a way of resolving a 'crisis'. The "crisis" generated plan-ning is focused on that "crisis" and its resolution inshort-term. Thus for example the problem of quality is seenas an urgent need for more and better mathematics and scien-ce; or the development of the education system as a concernwith one or the other level of education — higher educationfor manpower, claim some, or universal primary education,urge others. Increasingly pre-occupied with the quantitative,with the "crisis", with the systemic rather than what the sys-tem is for and with the short-term, educational planning hasnot found a mission of envisioning, stimulating and facilita-ting educational change and transformation. In the 1980smost countries in Asia-Pacific have recognized the need for amore comprehensive approach to education than that encom-passed in the established educational planning methods, andhave been engaged in developing educational reforms with amuch wider focus. The conception of educational reform inthe perspectives of multi-dimensional and long-term deve-lopments in society and in the learning environment willextend the reach, relevance and effectiveness of educationalpolicy making and of its instrument, educational planning.______________________________

45 Author's "Educational Planning in Asia" (UNESCO: International Institutefor Educational Planning, Paris, 1990 Ed.)

Implications for planning of education

85

The future that is to be systematically explored andspeculated about is not so remote that it loses its boundariesinto utopia, nor so near that it gets crowded out by the imme-diate pulls and pressures. To be able to look a generation orso ahead might well be the right kind of time-framework. Itshould make possible reflection upon and assessment of alter-native educational goals for the future, contenting and active-ly contributing to alternative societal futures; exploring thecomplex qualitative aspects of education and learning, and ofthe individual's growth in knowledge; and marking out newpaths, new institutions and new structures of learning sys-tems.

Of all organized human activities, education (nextonly to religion) is most multi-dimensional. That characteris-tic needs to find full expression in any exploring of thefutures-perspectives and linkage with educational policy for-mulation. Within the multi-dimensional context, there arethree elements or factors which help to define, though notnecessarily determine, the educational futures. Firstly, thereare variables outside the domain of education and embeddedin the larger society, economic-political, developmental,technological, socio-cultural, institutional. The perception ofhow these variables in combination are likely, or need, tochange over time is an important cross-over point betweeneducation and the larger society. Secondly, there are factorsendogenous to the educational process such as the human fac-tor, the issues of quality, knowledge and learning, the meansand systems of education, etc. Then thirdly, overarching boththe exogenous and endogenous variables are the issues ofvalues, expressing the society's aspirations for that whichcontinues and endures.

In the context of a national society and within the fra-mework, broadly suggested above, the envisioning of thelong-term, multi-dimensional future of education contributesdirectly to clarify, for policy making, the consequences of


86

d i fferent educational goals and the need to induce directionalchanges in the present in order to align it better to the condi-tions of the longer-term future environment. Policy-f o r m u l a-tion in education, as in other sectors, is one of makingchoices. Tr a d i t i o n a l l y, educational development and plan-ning are conceived in terms of bringing about a change in thepresent situation in order to respond to a demand on the edu-cation system or to a crisis. The future-oriented educationadds a new movement and a new direction. The image ofeducation for the future, conceived, defined and describedsystematically and clearly, becomes the starting point loca-ted in the future from which to view and assess the present.In this scenario, the future begins to look back at the present;it becomes a "history of the future". Educational develop-ment, planning and innovation acquire a powerful concep-tual and programmatic role in the "futures-history". T h eapproach brings into relief the alternative paths and possibi-lities from which the policy as well as the programmingchoices need to be made. This leads to identifying the parti-cular points in the complex sequence of "events" (from thefuture to the present) which are crucial and pivotal. T h eidentification may suggest the need for interventions and thepoints to which they may be addressed. The future-o r i e n t e deducation approach compels a continuous scrutiny andappraisal of the existing educating systems and institutions,and calls for the development of new kinds of educationalinstitutions as well as new ways of educating. One of the keyareas of educational innovation is institutional reform andrenewal; without such renewal, the institutional systembecomes a drag on educational development. Future-o r i e n-ted educational planning process is a powerful impetus ininstitutional renewal and in stimulating the creation of newinstitutions and knowledge networks. Such institutionalreform and renewal will be needed also in educational plan-ning and programming mechanisms with a view to investingthem with the capacity on a continuing basis to study,


87

analyze and anticipate changes on the national and interna-tional levels and think through their implication for educationand the educating system, both formal and non-formal.

Planning which includes a future-oriented approach toeducation needs as much as does the traditional planning,adequate tools for analyzing the present situation which is inall cases the base for action. It is in the light of such analysisthat the course of the future to the present can be charted. Thekind of quantitative data (demographic, enrolments, teachers,etc.) which is the staple of educational planning may turn outto be quite inadequate. This area will need considerable studyand investigation in order to develop meaningful "educationindicators" to tell us what is happening in education whichwill be crucially important in exploring and "imaging" thefuture.

Education in the perspectives of the future is essen-tially education in the process of deep qualitative transforma-tion. A qualitative change refers to the present and the futureat the same time — that which is to change and the futurewhich will be delivered by that change. Innovation lies at theheart of the change process, and its role is vitally important inf u t u r e-oriented education. Innovation's role is not onlymaking incremental changes possible; it lies more in delinea-ting the strategy of change. The growth points of innovationare in areas where the transformation is deepest from the pre-sent to the future. Thus conceptualizing new educationalgoals, the institutional system and the division of educationalmission between the formal and non-formal, the new integra-ted processes of knowing-learning-teaching, new partner-ships in education (home, community, national and global) —imaginative and innovative changes and redirections in theseand related areas will make a decisive difference betweeneducation for the future and a uni-linear growth pattern.

Human nature being what it is in the tug between the"now" and the future, it is not argued nor expected that educa-


88

tional policy and planning will not be concerned with theshort-term or the crisis situation: rather, the longer time pers-pective will become more influential because it is develop-mentally more significant.

International Co-operative Action

The main focus of future-oriented education and itsplanning and development is at the national level.International co-operation and participation have an impor-tant contribution to make. There is first the "global" aspect ofmany of the changes that are affecting the countries, such asenvironment, the process of globalization, etc. Clearly inthese areas the international communities can provide inva-luable support and active co-operation. Then there is the gro-wing range of initiatives in policies and programmes thatnational authorities are taking for the reform and renewal oftheir education systems. The wider framework provided bythe futures-perspective in education needs to be linked tothese initiatives as a matter of priority. By inter-country jointprojects, exchange of experience and insights, joint delibera-tions and thinking, and exchange of well designed informa-tion, data and personnel, co-operation among the regionalcountries can contribute significantly to each participatingcountry's efforts, both present and prospective. The interna-tional communities' co-operation is as important for the inte-grity of their intellectual mission as it is for the support of thecountries. The new year of a new decade can well be the startof a new trail in international co-operation centred on educa-tion for the future; it need not be a one-time interest in ringingout/ringing in a century.


89

Annex

LIST OF SPEAKERS AND THEIR PAPERSgiven at the Regional Symposium in Bangkok

(16-18 August 1990)

Title Author Code No. of reference

Education for the Dr. Shaikh Maqsood SYM/M.A-1Future World Ali

Educational Policies Mr. Isao Amagi SYM/I.A-2Towards the21st Century

Asian Education for Dr. Kim Duk-choong SYM/D.C-3the 21st Century

Educating for the Dr. Peter Ellyard SYM/P.E-421st Century

Education and the Mr. A. Kadir Jasin SYM/K.J-521st Century

Preparing For the Dr. Chitra Naik SYM/C.N-621 st Century:

Challenges forEducation

91

Title Author Code No.of reference

Education for Rev. Miguel Ma. SYM/M.V-8Tomorrow Varela

Education for the Dr. Prawase Wasi SYM/A W-9Future

________________________________________________In this publication, references to the papers are made usingthe code numbers in the last column

A limited stock of copies of the above papers are available onrequest from the Asian Centre of Educational Innovation andDevelopment

Other references

On 27 November - 2 December 1989, UNESCO convened inBeijing, People's Republic of China an International Sym -posium and Round Table. The Round Table Report is titled,"Learning to Care: Education for the Twenty-First Century".

The Report of the Symposium is also titled "Learning to Care:Education for the Twenty-First Century". In this publicationthey are referred to as Round Table Report and SymposiumReport.________________________________________________


92

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Raja Roy Singh (India) has had extensive andvaried experience in education, first at the national level as aState Director of Education and subsequently as anEducational Adviser at the Federal Ministry of Education.Joining UNESCO in 1964, he was based in Bangkok wherefor the next twenty years until his retirement he was deeplyinvolved in international cooperation for the promotion ofeducation in the region of Asia and the Pacific as RegionalDirector of Education and later as Assistant Director-Generalof UNESCO in Asia and the Pacific. He has written extensi-vely on educational problems in the developing countries.His publications include: Education in Asia and the Pacific(UNESCO/Bangkok, 1966)Adult literacy as educational pro -cess (International Bureau of Education, Geneva, 1990),Educational Planning in Asia (International Institute forEducational Planning, UNESCO, Paris, 1990 ed.)

93

The Asia and Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation forDevelopment (APEID) has as its primary goal to contribute to the buil-ding of national capabilities for undertaking educational innovationslinked to the problems of national development, thereby improving thequality of the people in the Member States.

All projects and activities within the framework of APEID are desi-gned, developed and implemented co-operatively by the participatingMember States through nearly 200 national centres which they haveassociated for this purpose with APEID.

The 29 Member States participating in APEID are Afghanistan,Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Democratic People's Republic ofKorea, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Lao People's DemocraticRepublic, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, NewZealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea,Samoa, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga,Turkey and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Each country has set up a National Development Group (NDG) toidentify and support educational innovations for development within thecountry and facilitate exchange between countries.

The Asian Centre of Educational Innovation for Development(ACEID), an integral part of the UNESCO Principal Regional Officefor Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, co-ordinates the activities underAPEID and assists the Associated Centres (AC) in carrying them out.

In the fourth cycle of APEID (1987-1991), seven programme areashave been selected for the purpose of concentration. These are:

1. Universalization of primary education2. Continuing education3. Education and the world of work4. Restructuring secondary education5. Educational technology and information technology6. Training of personnel including professional support services and

distance education7. Science and technology education including science for all.

unesco's education for the 21st century

Documents